Spotify Wrapped is a genius move by the global music streaming platform. It allows users to view and share their personalised listening statistics for the past year. And, it reveals fun facts and insights about their musical preferences. It also shows the top artists, songs, albums, genres, and podcasts that all users streamed on the platform. And it just appeared in-app today for anyone who uses Spotify.
To see your Spotify Wrapped for the latest year on mobile, you can type in Wrapped in the search pane of the Spotify app.
Spotify Wrapped is a unique feature that is different from the offerings of rivals like Apple Music. And it is a very strong selling point. It is released annually around the first days of December. It is usually accompanied by a global campaign that showcases some of the most interesting data from Spotify users.
Soon, personalised video messages from thousands of artists, thanking their fans for their support and loyalty, will start to appear on social media.
Spotify Wrapped is a popular topic on social media, as users love to compare and contrast their musical tastes with their friends, family, and celebrities.
How does Spotify Wrapped use AI?
Spotify Wrapped uses AI to analyse the billions of streams and interactions that users have with the platform throughout the year.
AI helps Spotify to understand the patterns, preferences, and behaviours of each user, and to generate customised and relevant recommendations for them. Thus, Spotify gives users their own AI DJ, who robotically curates a playlist for those that want it.
Some of the AI techniques that Spotify Wrapped uses are as follows.
Natural language processing (NLP)
NLP is the ability of machines to understand and generate natural language, such as text and speech. Spotify Wrapped uses NLP to create catchy and witty headlines for each user’s Wrapped, such as “You listened to 1,234 different songs, but nothing topped WAP” or “You spent 48,765 minutes listening to podcasts. You’re practically an expert now”.
NLP also helps Spotify to extract information and insights from the lyrics and metadata of the songs and podcasts, such as the mood, theme, genre, and sentiment.
Computer vision
Computer vision is the ability of machines to process and understand visual information, such as images and videos. Spotify Wrapped uses computer vision to create stunning and colourful graphics for each user’s Wrapped, based on the album covers, artist photos, and podcast logos that they listened to.
Machine learning
Machine learning is how machines learn and improve their performance as time passes. Spotify Wrapped uses machine learning to create personalised and dynamic playlists for each user, based on their listening history, preferences, and feedback. Machine learning also helps Spotify to discover new and emerging artists, songs, and genres, and to recommend them to users who might like them.
Spotify Wrapped: Marketing genius
Spotify Wrapped is a brilliant way for Spotify to engage its users and showcase its AI capabilities. It is more than just a feature, it is a cultural phenomenon that reflects the potential of AI in any industry, not just in music.
