By Alena Bitonti
Staff Writer
The annual Spotify Wrapped is officially available on the app for 2023. This year, it includes several new features to help you make the most out of your music journey.
Spotify Wrapped is a viral marketing campaign by Spotify that allows users to view a personalized data slideshow that details their activity on the platform over the past year. These stories highlight statistics such as most-played artists, songs and albums.
Wrapped results are typically delivered to users around late November to early December. On Nov. 29, the 2023 edition was released with several new data stories, including “Me in 2023” and “Sound Town.”
“Me in 2023” reveals a specific character that defines different listening habits, such as “Vampire” for fans of emotional music and “Cyclops” for those who typically stream one genre. “Sound Town” assigns selected cities based on a user’s most streamed artists and the location in which they are generally streamed.
Spotify Wrapped 2023 also delivered personalized video messages from thousands of artists, thanking fans for their support over the past year. Some of the world’s biggest artists recorded video messages, including Taylor Swift, SZA and Bad Bunny.
Fans can share their personalized Wrapped stories directly to social media apps in order to showcase their musical journey with friends and followers. It’s a common trend for Spotify Wrapped to dominate platforms like Instagram on release day, and 2023 was no different.
Similar to Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay compiles listening data for Apple Music users across the year. However, Replay lacks the unique experiences offered by Wrapped. Apple relies more on chart statistics and predictable data rather than personalized and shareable content.
Platforms like Amazon Music do not have the yearly recap experience of Spotify and Apple. Amazon offers a customized playlist with the songs a user has streamed throughout the year but does not include engaging graphics and analytics.
According to Music Business Worldwide, Spotify remains the top audio streaming service with 210 million global subscribers. Spotify Wrapped continues to dominate yearly music streaming recaps and emerge as an exciting trend every year, with the new 2023 features adding an extra layer of fun and engagement for users.
