A year later, it evolved to include personalized year-end playlists and was rebranded officially to РІР‚СљWrappedРІР‚Сњ and rolled out with a full-funnel campaign. In 2015 when it first debuted, the project was simply a microsite showing top songs and top genres as a way to show how music fans engaged with the platform. While Wrapped has become a global phenomenon every December, itРІР‚в„ўs evolved over the past few years. РІР‚СљThis year we have a second section where you can see the top 10 songs of the year, but we created it kind of like you would a bunch of record covers all lined up. РІР‚СљI think instinctively, we end up leaning into that memorialization a little bit in the creative,РІР‚Сњ Bodman says. Bodman said that wasnРІР‚в„ўt the intention, but it was maybe something that was in SpotifyРІР‚в„ўs collective subconscious. The campaign also in some ways gives digital music fans a way to remember the albums and songs they donРІР‚в„ўt remember loving without having a physical CD or record to trigger it. YouРІР‚в„ўre trying to entertain.РІР‚СњР”Р„ Spotify Wrapped ad inside of a train station in Brazil. РІР‚СљAnd in a time when everyone has smartphones and people are sharing on social all the time, we actually think of out of home (ads) as potentially social media as well-only if you treat it as something that youРІР‚в„ўre not just trying to think of as an ad. РІР‚СљFor us, what weРІР‚в„ўve found is it allows you to create cultural moments,РІР‚Сњ Bodman says. However, Bodman said much of online presence has been organic. In fact, Spotify says it has 5,100 unique billboards and other out-of-home ad placements running globally. Outdoor advertising plays a key role again in this yearРІР‚в„ўs Wrapped campaign. РІР‚СљI think there is always a balance of the stories that we know people are going to want-the familiar that they are going to expect-and working in the stories they wouldnРІР‚в„ўt expect that make them think about listening in the different way.РІР‚Сњ РІР‚СљEvery year we have more stories than we can probably make and more ideas than we can probably make and as we craft the digital experience,РІР‚Сњ he says. To close out the decade, the Swedish music streaming service did a special version this year showcasing each personРІР‚в„ўs past decade of music-perhaps jogging memories in a role previously played by vinyl records or CDs in decades a little farther back.Р”Р„ccording to Alex Bodman, SpotifyРІР‚в„ўs vice president and global executive creative director, the goal was to make the setting feel like it could be anywhere and relatable to everyone-regardless of their music tastes. This month, tens of millions of people have been going through their own digital archives of music and memories as part of SpotifyРІР‚в„ўs annual Wrapped project, which gives each user a detailed report of their top songs from the last year featuring most played, favorite genres and other stats. (A decade later, their songs still remind me of the bar in Brooklyn where I first heard them.) I remember driving north and south many weekends on Interstate 65 between Alabama and Tennessee while deciding whether I should move to Nashville in 2014, listening to bands from Birmingham like Fort Atlantic and Wilder Adkins or Nashville songwriters such as Molly Parden and Peter Bradley Adams. I remember other memories from other bands, too, such as hearing the English indie duo The xx for the first time in 2010, days after moving to New York City.

It was 2009, and a friend had given me a copy of Bon IverРІР‚в„ўs first album, РІР‚СљFor Emma, Forever Ago.РІР‚Сњ I didnРІР‚в„ўt have an iPhone or iPod yet, so I brought the CD with me to South Korea, where I played it on repeat on my Sony Walkman while quarantined on an island off the coast during the swine flu scare. I remember when I discovered my favorite band of the decade.

Spotify wrapped