Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Spotify's Interactive Experiences Create the Magic of Wrapped Year-Round

18/10/2023

Spotify users start chattering on social media about Spotify Wrapped months before the experience is unveiled. The data dive turned cultural phenomenon, in which we unveil global top-listened-to songs, artists, albums, and podcasts, as well as fans' personal listening trends, is as much of a learning experience for us as it is for our users. It's an opportunity to see firsthand how much audio impacts our listeners' lives, and the ways they turn to our platform to dive into this experience even more deeply.

So the Spotify marketing teams make efforts to leverage our unique abilities and insights for original interactive experiences throughout the entire year. From New Years-inspired Playlist In a Bottle to My Top Five artist experiences with Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, ROSAL A, BTS, and Taylor Swift, these new campaigns delight our users, more deeply connecting them with the artists they love and with fellow fans.

Wrapped really credentialed us in the marketplace in terms of marrying data with creativity and delivering it to users in an interesting way. And it gave us permission to think outside the box, says Louisa Ferguson, Head of Global Marketing Experience. There's a lot of cultural energy on Spotify, and it's nice to carve out space for Spotify to be more experimental and to try things that we're not sure if they're going to work and we want to find out. Our users help us do that.

Louisa notes that as the team developed ideas for interactive moments, they realized there were opportunities to illuminate new and different insights on our users' listening behaviors.

We want users to more consistently stumble upon these exciting, engaging moments throughout the year, says Colette McIntyre, an Associate Creative Director at Spotify. We see the younger generation, in particular, craving more interactivity and more personalization. They want to connect with the artists they love more, they want to connect with their own tastes more, and they want to connect with other fans more. And we wanted to facilitate that more regularly.

Playlist in a Bottle is a notable example of a moment of surprise and delight when users aren't expecting it. It also puts listening ownership in users' hands by enabling them to create a playlist for their future self.

Playlist in a Bottle is a lovely complement to Wrapped, which is a look back, in that it's a look forward, a prediction of how your year is going to unfold, said Louisa. The team was floored by the reception and is eyeing January 2024 as an opportunity to reintroduce the experience.

Our platform reflects the cultural zeitgeist Though Playlist in a Bottle is one example that focuses on a topical moment, New Years, the team also prides itself on keeping abreast of unique trends and cultural conversations.

Social media is core to this. We think social first, always, says Colette. Social conversation is inherent to these experiences. Part of why these are connecting with people is because they're built on very real insights of fandom, of genre, of the ways our users or fans react. One of our interactive experiences, GetReadyWithMusic, was inspired by, yes, music's long-standing relationship with fashion, but also the social phenomenon of Get Ready With Me' videos on social.

We are very, very focused on tapping into existing cultural conversation, Louisa agrees. It is really important that we enable these fans, who are already having this debate in various places, to come to the place where they actually listen to the music, engage with the experience, and then share it out to their friends and spark maybe a little bit of disagreement. We're okay with that. We like that friction.

Having those moments on our platform isn't necessarily a given, and that's where Johannes Vuorensola, Director for Tooling, Integrations, and Labs, comes in. Johannes oversees a back-end product that allows Spotify to create these playful experiences in our Android and iOS mobile apps, keeping listeners where they are to enjoy moments like Supergrouper or Pet Playlists 2.0.

We want to be able to provide a seamless experience for our users, rather than driving them to another destination on a microsite or web page, says Johannes. We know that our users love our app; they want to consume music and other content on our platform. And obviously it's natural for us to be able to bring these playful elements into their everyday lives, right where they are.

Johannes notes that it's also a boon for the team to be able to develop and get feedback on these experiences across Spotify. It helps us to take the product onto the next level by pushing it even further. This allows us to continue to innovate and build even more engaging products that truly create these playful and meaningful experiences and connections with our users and artists.

Evolving data as the differentiator While some interactive experiences are more general, others fall into niche fandoms or favorite genres. All of these are rooted in the habits of the listening communities we see on Spotify.

You can't escape the fact that genre is still a useful organizing principle for music, and it's a way for fans to come together and convene over a passion and attract a bigger community, says Louisa.

In Find Your Flow, listeners discovered which Latin music style best defined them by answering questions specific to their tastes. Then they received a listening persona based on their styles. For an experience like Find Your Flow, all the details we used were hyper-specific to the reggaeton community, and all those data and listening insights came from a local level to us, notes Louisa. That is a real example of how Spotify's broad reach is enabling us to dive deeper into a specific market, pull
LINK: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-18/spotifys-interactive-experienc...
See more stories from spotify

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

30/05/2026

NAB Asks FCC to Shift Regulatory Fee Burden to Big Tech, Broadband

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/05/2026

NAB Announces 2026 Board Election Results

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/05/2026

IAB Tech Lab Releases Guidance for Managing AI Crawlers and Bots

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/05/2026

Zero in on one that says yes (and no)

Zero in on one that says yes (and no) Andy Marken May 29, 2026 0 Comments Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos For content creators the most difficu...

29/05/2026

InfoComm 2026: NDI Demos NDI 6.3, Hands-On Presentation About Educational Integrations

With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...

29/05/2026

Bell Media Inks New Long-Term Media Rights Deal for Broadcast, Streaming of the Canadian Football League

Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...

29/05/2026

Spring 2026 TV Survey: Vertical Live Matters. The Bigger Story Is Context

Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format Ring Digital's Sprin...

29/05/2026

Germanys Berliner Ensemble Bolsters Backstage Infrastructure With Riedel Stage Systems

Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...

29/05/2026

InfoComm 2026: Solid State Logic Spotlights TCA Tour, Live V6.2 Software, New SSL Live Trade-in Program

Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...

29/05/2026

Gerald Jerry Pierce, Architect of Modern Digital Cinema, Passes Away at Age 73

Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...

29/05/2026

CBS Sports Becomes New Home of Barclays Women's Super League Thorough 2029-2030

Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...

29/05/2026

Calrec Scales ImPulseV to Empower Broadcasters With Greater Choice in Virtualized Workflows

Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...

29/05/2026

Switzerlands Canal Alpha Streamlines Playout to Delivery With Harmonic

Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...

29/05/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics Showcases Intelligent Video Ecosystem

PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...

29/05/2026

Arizona's Family Sports Debuts Direct-to-Consumer Streaming App

Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...

29/05/2026

DAZN Brings The Canadian Football Leagues Saturday Night Football to the Masses in New Media Rights Deal

Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...

29/05/2026

Comcast Business Supports Advanced Technology Infrastructure at Levi's Stadium for Fan Experience, Venue Operations

Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...

29/05/2026

College Sports-Production Community Gathers in Atlanta for 2026 SVG College Summit

In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...

29/05/2026

TBT Reaches Two-Year Extension With FOX Sports for New-Look $2 Million Tournament

The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...

29/05/2026

Roku Expands Premium Subscriptions Experience with FOX One

Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...

29/05/2026

CBS Sports UEFA Champions League Today Studio Show Heads Budapest for Final as Transcontinental Popularity Grows

In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...

29/05/2026

Ratings Roundup: NBA, NHL Playoffs and Indy 500 Photo Finish Power a Record-Setting Week

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...

29/05/2026

Your Summer 2026 Soundtrack? Spotify's Predictions Are In

The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...

29/05/2026

Akai Pro unveil the MPC Live III Retro

New retro-inspired MPC announced There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...

29/05/2026

Bjooks Beat Gems Kickstarter continues

Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...

29/05/2026

Genelec update Aural ID

Binaural monitoring application improved Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...

29/05/2026

IMSTA FESTA 2026

6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...

29/05/2026

Remembering Gerald Jerry Pierce, Architect of Modern Digital Cinema

Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...

29/05/2026

Roku Unveils Redesigned TV Home Screen

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

Sinclair and AMP Sports to Launch Style of Play' Podcast

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

TV Pharma Ads Are Getting Longer, VAB Says

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality

Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality Kate Luvis May 29, 2026 0 Comments Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...

29/05/2026

Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton May 29, 2026 0 Comments Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...

29/05/2026

FCC Reminds Broadcasters of Their Public Interest Obligations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

Roku Unveils New TV Home Screen

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

Sinclair and AMP Sports Announce New 'Style of Play' Podcast

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

Study: YouTube Leads Global Streaming Ad Growth

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

TV Pharma Ads Are Getting Longer, According to VAB

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/05/2026

At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration

At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...

29/05/2026

Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre

Back to All News Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...

29/05/2026

Glookast Launches Cinnafilm Tachyon Plugin for Media Producer and Media Services

GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES This release first appeared here. Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...

29/05/2026

Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to Video Content with Dolby Atmos

May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...

29/05/2026

Audiences Are Everywhere. Your Ad Strategy Should Be Too.

Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...

29/05/2026

Rosie Jones's Disability Comedy Extravaganza returns with another new lineup of eight comics

Youtube exclusive special drops today Watch now UKTV today announces another e...

29/05/2026

The Official Trailer of 'Physical 100' Italy, on Netflix From September 11

Back to All News The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...