Spotify and Apple Music are the two biggest faces of music streaming.
While Spotify has a significantly larger market share, Apple Music still corners a large share of the market and some rather loyal fans.
While this might have a little something to do with the general brand loyalty of Apple users, Apple Music does also have a much more expansive music selection along with much better sound quality.
Since music streaming is all about the quantity and quality of music, Apple Music should be the obvious choice. But somehow, Spotify has managed to get ahead of the competition in a big way.
So what is it about Spotify that makes people flock to it?
How Spotify mastered the rule of personalisation
Whenever someone brings up the Spotify vs Apple Music debate, the most common justification is that they have better playlists. And this is mostly true.
Spotify is built in order to help its users discover new music and artists, but how do they make this discovery special? These playlists are built entirely for YOU.
It’s all based on your personal listening data, which means that no two playlists will look the same between two different users.
This brings us to one of the most underrated marketing strategies of modern times; the rule of personalisation. Personalisation is the process by which brands tailor their communication to the specific needs of their customers, seeking to understand and connect with the customer rather than treating them with a one-size-fits-all approach.
While most people use this strategy to develop individualised offers and product suggestions, Spotify has used it to develop its own services, which in turn has given its consumers an unparalleled relationship with the platform.
The best use of their personalisation, hands down, has been the creation of Spotify Wrapped.
This has spiralled into a hit viral marketing campaign that has dubbed December 1st, Spotify Wrapped Day.
The cultural phenomenon of Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped was first released in 2015 under the name Year in Review, and found comparatively less success than what Spotify Wrapped enjoys today.
Now, we get to see our top artists, top songs, top genres, listening minutes, audio aura and so on. They managed to curate our data into something that we anticipate every year and look forward to sharing and talking about.
The decision to release the Wrapped every year on December 1st has also made it somewhat of an event for people to look forward to. Even the news that Spotify Wrapped stops collecting data in October was circulated so people could “fix” their listening activity in time for the data collection.
The day itself is full of people sharing their own Wrapped on their stories, generating an online dialogue. It’s a day of music culture and practically everyone on Spotify actively participates in it.
Musicians and artists are also given their own version of Wrapped, which gives them some alternative statistics and fun facts about their music. This brings artists and listeners together to celebrate and share their Wrapped.
Spotify has ensured its success by making it really easy for everyone to participate in the Wrapped festivities, with the personalisation encouraging all listeners to share their data.
December 1st is essentially a day of free publicity for Spotify, with little input from Spotify itself.
Since 2017, Spotify has more than doubled its subscriber base.
Why is everyone so captivated by Spotify Wrapped?
Spotify has identified that it is impossible to resist the view of…well…you.
Your own music taste is exquisite. And your Spotify Wrapped is here to prove it.
By tapping into everyone’s god complexes, Spotify took over the conversation and our social media pages.
According to Spotify, in 2020, “More than 60 million users engaged with Wrapped content this year, spurring more than 40 million shares of Wrapped stories and cards and more than 6.5 billion streams from Year/Decade Top Songs playlists.”
This just lends itself to word-of-mouth advertising reaching a fever pitch on December 1st. Leaving everyone who didn’t have Spotify feeling incredibly left out of the conversation, or as the kids would call it, have major FOMO.
(Apple Music users are notably part of this FOMO.)
The entire campaign has been ridiculously successful in getting non-Spotify users to sign up so that they can participate in the festivities.
After seeing exactly how popular Spotify Wrapped has become, Spotify has continued to release similar features that serve the same purpose. Halfway through the year, they released an audio birth chart, which was an instant hit.
While it doesn’t reach the same level of popularity as the end of the year Wrapped, it is clear that people respond to anything that will allow them to share more of themselves on their social media.
Any publicity is good publicity: Spotify Wrapped takes to the memes
The content of the Wrapped itself was written with many of the years most popular memes. However, with how quickly internet culture moves on, these attempts came off as a little cringe.
Spotify was shunned the way all corporations are when they’re trying to be relevant; with the Steve Buscemi ‘fellow kids’ meme.
While this wasn’t entirely intentional, this did end up generating even more publicity as people kept talking about it and sharing memes ridiculing the writing.
The different formats that Spotify came out with, also easily lent themselves to meme templates.
For the next few weeks, there were memes based on the Wrapped format. And if there’s one thing we’ve learnt, memes are a ridiculously effective way of viral marketing.
Music streaming made social
Spotify seems to have recognised the importance of making its platform a social experience in order to enhance its marketing efforts.
While there are the standard features such as seeing your friends listening activity and collaborative playlists—the blends are the latest feature that has been gaining traction.
This feature allows you and a friend to see your music taste compatibility, a song that brings you together, along with a playlist curated for the both of you.
Focus on creating experiences rather than just providing a service
By focusing on the individual’s experience rather than simply music streaming, Spotify has managed to take over the sector by a significant margin.
This is in stark contrast to other social media platforms whose data collection has garnered a lot of bad press. Spotify has found a way to use its user data in a way that isn’t creepy, or at least seems like it.
But this doesn’t mean that they aren’t just as bad as every other data collecting platform.
Overall, the entire phenomenon is all about understanding your consumers and catering personalised content for them.
If there’s one thing to learn from Spotify, it’s that you can invade as much privacy as you want as long as you make it fun and Instagram-worthy.