Insights on Spotify Wrapped From Someone Who Works There

As you’re likely already aware, Spotify Wrapped is fast approaching. The cut-off date for the annual overview of your musical tastes is slated for October 31, meaning that you only have a few days to try and trick your Spotify into thinking you have exceptionally cool taste. With that deadline fast approaching, we thought we’d get some insights into the inner workings of Wrapped, and so, we revisited a past interview with Hannah Brewer; a Spotify editor for Australian and New Zealander audiences.

Here’s what she had to say about Spotify Wrapped and how it influences music trends and listening habits.

Insights into Spotify Wrapped

When speaking on Wrapped, Brewer, who works on curating playlists as a large part of her job, shared that editors at Spotify often go through and review the trends that emerge and use them to inform which artists they might like to spotlight in the year following.

“We sometimes are surprised at the amount of listeners we’d see for certain artists at the end of the year, and that helps us notice that there’s a lot of demand for these artists,” she said over the phone.

So we should be serving these artists more. There is momentum here. How can we add to that? Especially when it comes to creating local hits or growing audiences for local artists. If we’re seeing organic demand for it, then that’s really exciting to us. How can we add to that momentum?”

On the other side of things, it can be super gratifying for Spotify editors to see that the genres or artists they have promoted throughout the year can wind up landing in Wrapped as a top performer.

For a little context, Spotify editors each spend hours and hours listening to new music each week (they have dedicated genres) and deciding which artists or tracks to promote on the platform. Often, the intention is to highlight local talent and get them in the ears of Aussies listening at home. So, when editor-highlighted genres or artists land in Spotify Wrapped, it’s a pretty big win.

“We created a Phonk playlist in 2021. And then, in last year’s Wrapped, it was one of the most listened-to playlists in Australia. So that was really interesting…

“Seeing that genre evolution, I think, is really interesting, and [it’s] exciting that music is still changing every year,” she said.

What to expect this year

We also asked Brewer at the time what trends she had been noticing floating around the Aussie listening scene. She shared that “Funk continues to be huge and exciting,” as well as “Drill, and especially Aussie Drill; it just keeps growing and growing”. Brewer also highlighted an interesting trend she’s seen in recent years is that for Gen Z, “everything old is new again to them, right? So they are rediscovering artists like INXS and Kate Bush…from shows like Euphoria and Stranger Things.” We also touched on examples like Fleetwood Mac or even Daisy Jones and the Six themselves after the success of the series.

“It sort of allows us to, you know, help audiences reengage with that music and reignite the excitement about these incredible legacy artists,” Brewer shared.

So, assumedly, we can probably expect to see some nostalgic sounds emerging in Spotify Wrapped this year, too.

Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Lead Image Credit: Spotify/iStock