Spotify Newsletter #190
Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News
No doubt you are still basking in the warm glow of Spotify Wrapped 2023, which arrived like winged musical angels on Wednesday morning.
My year of musical discoveries and auditory trips down memory lane was thankfully Taylor Swift-free, yet no less sensational. No offense, TS!
The Spotify Wrapped celebration gets more exciting each year. It’s fun! It’s nice to share with friends and family.
Everyone is so …. happy! Happy to review their top artists, genres and songs of the year - and jump on social media to chat about it.
Cue the dark clouds. Not everyone is smiling. Team buzzkill in the media doesn’t like those dastardly audio demons from Stockholm. These dour folks are like the Grinch, looking down at Spotify users in Spotify-ville, grimacing at all of us dancing and singing and sharing.
Look no further than this stick-in-the-mud column from The Guardian about how ‘Wrapped doesn’t reflect what we truly love.’
No kidding. I don’t expect the data kings at Spotify to know my musical tastes right down to every random White Lion song I dial up on the streaming machine.
Here’s some breaking news for today: Spotify Wrapped is not a perfect product with perfect stats that delivers an exact illustration of who you are as a consumer of music and podcasts.
It’s a massively popular viral marketing campaign that happens to kick-ass. That’s it.
I stumbled across a few other obnoxious, buzzkill stories. The world is a daily hellscape but heaven forbid some of us want a dash of musical joy to walk down the audio memory lane of the previous year
"But Noooo!"
There is always someone, somewhere, who must sulk away from the party, put on their dark coat and dark sunglasses and shake their finger at our fun.
These smug characters could just enjoy it for what it is, but they’d rather write 2000 words about how Spotify Wrapped doesn’t properly address climate change issues and by reliving our favorite tracks of 2023 we’re actually harming the planet.
Avoid these people.
Anyway….. For 2023, they added a new category: “Sound Town.” This supposedly tells you which town’s population has the listening habits most similar to yours.
Mine: Asheville, NC.
Spotify Wrapped 2023 was great! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and now I begin my push to make sure Simply Red’s “Holding Back the Years” makes my top 5 for 2024, which I can’t believe it didn’t this year as much as I listened to it.
🎁 Wrap Up 🎁
The Top Songs, Artists, Podcasts, and Listening Trends of 2023 Revealed
Musically, 2023 was defined by the return of major female pop stars, sonic diversity that topped the charts, and a global music atmosphere that gave rise to powerful genres. On the podcast front, creators are responding to trends in real time, and audiences are turning to podcasts to join larger cultural conversations. As always, our 2023 Spotify Wrapped campaign reflects these trends, and our toplists showcase how over 574 million people around the world listened this year.
Inside Spotify Wrapped 2023: An Annual Song of Ourselves
For nearly a decade, all Spotify users get a shareable summary of their annual listening habits that reveals who they really are and the year they had—stripping away any pretense of taste. The results often surprise people. People who think they’re Beethoven aficionados may find they’re actually bigger fans of Beyoncé.
Spotify Wrapped 2023 is so popular, it’s crashing
Spotify Wrapped, the yearly roundup that offers insight into your listening habits, started having issues shortly after its launch. While Spotify is offering Wrapped on the web for the first time, the experience isn’t loading for some users.
Spotify’s Head of Global Marketing Experience Explains Why This Year’s Wrapped Is the Realest Yet
Today, the biggest Wrapped we’ve ever created debuted on Spotify. Not only is it live in a whopping 170 markets and 35+ languages, but it’s also taken on a more prominent role in our app, with integrations spanning DJ, audio listening rooms, Blend, merch, and more. In a year in which Spotify brought more to users than ever before, 2023 Wrapped stands to unite all of our offerings in one unforgettable experience.
Spotify's 2023 Wrapped Brings Some More Personality to Your Streaming Habits
For 2023, Spotify's new feature "Me in 2023" assigns you one of 12 streaming habits that reflect your use, such as Luminary (you play light, upbeat music more than others), Alchemist (you create more playlists than others) and Shapeshifter (you're quick to move from one artist to the next). Last year, the service sorted users into a listening personality, and this seems like a similar feature. There's also a new feature called Sound Town, which matches you to a city based on your year of streaming.
Spotify Wrapped 2023 reveals the real you, wether you like it nor not
In a year of AI advancements and deepfakes, Spotify Wrapped 2023 wants to ground you in reality.
Spotify Wrapped Is Back Again. Are You a Vampire or a Shape Shifter?
Spotify is amping up its end-of-year Wrapped feature with new labels for listening habits, AI DJ playlists, and thousands of artist videos. And of course Roblox is getting in on the action.
🗣 Podcasts 🗣
Spotify Top 25 Podcasts Rankings 2023: Joe Rogan Again No. 1
“The Joe Rogan Experience,” exclusive to Spotify under a 2020 deal, again clocked in with the most popular show on the platform for 2023. The company revealed the top 25 rankings for the U.S. and globally as part of this year’s Spotify Wrapped annual marketing event
▶️ Playlists ▶️
Spotify Wrapped 2023 assigns you a ‘sound town’ based on your music taste
This year’s Spotify Wrapped roundup is live. As was the case with previous years, it features a bundle of shareable stats that break down the most-listened artists, songs, and podcasts for 574 million users.
🎧 Streams 🎧
Taylor Swift And Morgan Wallen Dominated Spotify In The U.S. In 2023
She might not have ended up with the No. 1 song or the top-streamed album in the U.S. this year, but Taylor Swift comes out on top anyway when looking at the most popular artists on Spotify.
🎼 Spotify 4 Artists 🎼
How Spotify Made Wrapped More Valuable Than Ever for Artists
Since launching Artist Wrapped in 2017, we’ve worked to make this moment bigger and better with each go around, adding data stories with deeper insights, integrations that provide more ways to connect with fans, and delightful moments that extend beyond the core Wrapped experience.
💡 Tips & Tricks 💡
🖌 Design 🖌
🔥 News 🔥
beatBread joins Spotify, YouTube, others in IMPALA’s Friends program
Spotify re-positions two-tier licensing (we are getting closer, and it can be even better)
Nike and Spotify team up to empower girls through the Make Moves Fund
26-year-old makes 33K from 2-minute side hustle that costs next to nothing
Spotify exits Uruguay after new law requires payments to performer
🎵 New Adventures 🎵
Shane MacGowan, Irish singer-songwriter and The Pogues frontman has sadly passed away. He formed the Irish punk band Pogue Mahone, later shortened to The Pogues, in 1982 and released seven studio albums.
📧 Get in touch 📧
If you have a question, idea, request, or simply a desire to chat about Spotify, please email me at jeff.spotifynewsletter@gmail.com.