When Did Spotify Wrapped Get So Chatty?

“In 2021 you did what you set out to do.”

“You’ve always understood assignments.”

“As far as your skincare routine is concerned, you are eligible for the playlist.”

No, these sentences are not uttered by Tiktok Star or Mast Mom. Instead, they are the phrases that appear in the annual data-driven marketing campaign known as Spotify Wrapped.

Released on December 1, the feature shows users of the streaming music service the most listened songs and artists of the year. His arrival reliably inspires numerous screenshots and memes on social media. In 2020, for example, people posted about how depressing (or soothing) some of their most listened tracks were.

During this time, much of the commentary revolved around the campaign’s Internet slang (“rent free in my head,” “web check,” “main character”) and references to popular topics (NFTs, skin care regimens). In a meme, a Twitter user joked Personal finance Using the Spotify campaign tone: “Your account balance checks are at the bottom.003%. Strange flex but fine! ”

Some users also reported shocking revelations about their listening habits. (Who knew they were the top .05 percent of the Doja Cat audience?) Others found something like self-knowledge in the “aura” readings created by Spotify based on the moods suggested by their musical tastes. (One person on Twitter Reported funny Spotify considered their audio aura to be “fertile and reproductive.”

After the feature was released on December 1, the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped trended for a few days and the memes are endless. In short, Spotify has collected a lot of data and is now reaping the benefits.

Kelsey McGarry, 28, who lives in Los Angeles and works as a grant writer and coordinator for the city’s Homeless Services, spends almost the entire day on her own Spotify Rap. She said the results seemed to read exactly who she was.

“My Spotify Rap is very gay,” said Ms. McGarry, who added that her top performer of the year was Charlie XCX. She was happy to look back on her musical year but the language in this year’s Wrapped was occasionally distracting.

“My skin care routine is not very long,” Ms. McGarry said. “Like, what are you talking about?”

Rajat Suresh, a 26-year-old comedian and writer, was one of the many people online who joked that Spotify was prone to playful language and buzzwords.

“In 2021, you were not canceled,” Mr. Suresh wrote in a Mem He posted on Twitter. “By Felicia! You got your fouki auchi and it shook the whole world. With the image, he added a question: “Why does Spotify say that?”

Ms. McGarry said that for her, the “clumsy” moment where the app was seen removing phrases from the cloud of popular swear words and search terms was a reminder that Spotify is a corporation and she was sharing snippets of her rolled-up campaign. Social media was “free advertising”.

According to Taj Alvi, Spotify’s head of global marketing, the company is always looking for new and creative ways to connect with Spotify’s audience, with more than 381 million worldwide.

“We often lean towards playful language and user experiences – that’s a key part of who we are as a brand,” Ms. Alvi wrote in an email. “When we think about what will be included in the user experience, the most important factor is to connect with the culture, not just about Spotify. So you will see the fickle context of cultural trends from 2021 in the interactive user experience. ”

Mr. Suresh says he uses Spotify a lot, which makes him “one of the companies that knows everything” about him. For him, however, this year’s round has reached a little more.

In a phone interview from his home in Brooklyn, he said, “It felt like a great Twitter thing when the brand was trying to look like a man or something,” noting that he just wanted to see the data instead.

That doesn’t mean he didn’t check out his Spotify rap with real curiosity. His top performer, he said, was Elliott Smith.