As 2024 comes to a close, audio streaming service Spotify has released its much-anticipated yearly recap of users' listening habits - Spotify Wrapped.
The initiative which started as a marketing campaign for the service completed 10 years in 2024. Over time, Spotify Wrapped, which provides users a retrospective look at their listening history through various data points across different formats, has grown into a cultural phenomenon. Users share their own listening activity across social platforms, while artists highlight their yearly performance.
Its popularity has prompted tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Google to launch similar personalised recaps through their respective music streaming platforms. In 2023, food delivery giant Swiggy and video streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar also offered similar experiences to consumers on their respective apps.
In this year's edition, Spotify has introduced a new data story called 'Your Music Evolution', which helps users discover the distinct musical phases that defined their year on the mobile app. People may receive up to three distinctive musical phases, the company said.
Based on this feature, the service will also provide users with a personalised playlist. Available through the Wrapped feed on the app's home screen, the playlist will include their favourite songs along with recommendations related to these musical moments.
In addition, Spotify will allow users to view their longest listening streak for their top five artists, as well as the top percentage of listeners they rank among their favourite artists. Premium subscribers will receive a personalised playlist that brings together music videos from their favourite artists into a single place.
One can also dive deeper into their audio listening habits by going beyond the top 5, with access to their Top 100 Songs and Top 20 Artists. These can be later saved into the user's library as a playlist on the app.
Other updates include offering short video messages from artists such as as Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan, Badshah, Anuv Jain, King, and MC Square, and podcasters such as Ranveer Allahbadia, Raj Shamani, Gourab Tapadar, and Praveen to their fans.
Personalised AI podcast
In certain markets, Spotify is partnering with Google's AI note taking tool NotebookLM to create a personalised AI-powered podcast where two hosts discuss the user's audio listening preferences, including their top songs, artists, and genres of the year.
This feature will be available in English for free and premium users across the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Sweden for a limited time.
Google stated that Spotify created these personalised podcasts using the technology that powers NotebookLM's Audio Overviews, which converts text into lively audio conversations.
A new AI Playlist feature will also allow premium subscribers to create personalised playlists using prompts such as 'my top 5 genres' or 'artists similar to my top 5'. The feature is available to Spotify's paid members in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland.
Apart from these, Spotify's AI DJ feature provides commentary to users on their music listening history for the past year, including their top artists and songs. The feature will be available in English and Spanish languages.
What people choosing Spotify in India?
Spotify also revealed its top lists of artists, songs, albums, and podcasts for the year 2024.
Arijit Singh retained his title as the most streamed artist on Spotify in India for the fourth consecutive year. He was followed by Pritam, AR Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal and Anirudh Ravichander.
Pehle Bhi Main from the movie Animal was the most-streamed song on Spotify in India with over 228 million streams. It was followed by Anuv Jain's single Husn, while Animal's Satranga took the third spot. Sajni from the movie Laapataa Ladies was fourth, while Akhiyaan Gulaab from Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya was fifth.
Animal was also the most-streamed album of the year, followed by Kabir Singh and Aashiqui 2. Karan Aujla's Punjabi album Making Memories stood fourth, while the movie Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani was fifth.
In terms of podcasts, Ranveer Allahbadia's The Ranveer Show topped the charts followed by Joe Rogan's The Joe Rogan Experience and Stephanie Soo's Rotten Mango.
Spotify noted that five out the 10 most-loved podcasts that launched on its platform in India in 2024, were led by women. They included Madly In Kaadhal (Tamil show by RJ Nidhi), Call Me Hopeful (English show hosted by Ira Khan), Realign Podcast with Humans of Bombay (Karishma Mehta), Konjam Think Panalama? (Tamil show by Anu) and Dinner Party (English show hosted by Aashna Hegde, Khushi Hegde, Esha Shetty,and Shloka Shetty).
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