Spotify Wrapped 2022 aims to connect listeners and artists

Spotify has unveiled this year’s iteration of its annual Wrapped campaign, complete with more interactive features that aim to connect music listeners with artists directly.

At a Tuesday (Nov. 28) press briefing, the audio streaming platform revealed new features for the global campaign, which caps off the year by sharing users' most-played songs, artists and podcasts between January and November 2022.

This year, Wrapped is placing emphasis on the two-way relationship between  connecting users and artists, stepping away from the typical focus on listener consumption habits. 

Users will see an increased number of thank you videos from artists, as well as the ability to share their personalized roundup through WhatsApp and Line. They will also see four-letter combinations that look like Myers-Briggs personality types representing their listening habits, such as streaming international or underground artists.

The new features also include:

Connecting artists and users: The in-app Wrapped hub will push merch and upcoming live performances from users’ top artists.

More artist messages: Last year, Spotify featured 170 pre-recorded thank you videos from artists to their top listeners. The platform has more than 40,000 artists involved this year, with participants including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and J Balvin. In order to see these videos, users need at least three of their top 10 artists to submit a message. Each user can see a maximum of 10 videos.

More social media sharing: In addition to supporting the ability to share Wrapped playlists on WhatsApp and Line, Spotify created a Snapchat lens that reflects a user’s listening personality, Wrapped-themed Bitmoji apparel and Wrapped-theme GIFs across Giphy.

A Roblox world: Wrapped is also heading to the metaverse by taking over Spotify Island in Roblox, where users can find new games, quests and merch.

Footie fun: As part of Spotify’s partnership with FC Barcelona, players including Robert Lewandowski, Alexia Putellas, Pedri and Ansu Fati will post Wrapped videos on their social media accounts.

Artists and podcasters will also get Wrapped roundups breaking down the listening personalities of their fans and how many list them as top creators in their respective categories.

Spotify’s global in-house marketing team developed the campaign, while the platform worked with local agencies to adapt it for 37 markets around the world. 

Spotify did not reveal plans for integrating audiobooks, which the platform began offering in September, into Wrapped campaigns, Babar Zafar, VP of product development, told press at the briefing.

Wrapped will run across traditional and digital OOH, connected TV, online video and social media. Keeping with the interactivity theme, Spotify is gamifying some of the OOH elements with trivia and a word search in New York City.

Last year, over 120 million people shared their Wrapped roundups, said Alex Bodman, VP, global executive creative director, at the press briefing. But, he added that many users share Wrapped through screenshots, which the platform can’t reliably track.

Spotify’s ad revenue grew to $383 million in Q3 2022, up 19% YoY, compared to $360 million in the previous quarter.