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Why is Spotify Wrapped Loved, Hated, Derided and Copied? Because It’s Effective.


Spotify Wrapped is a competitive advantage for the streamer over rivals like Apple Music and Amazon Music. Here's an analysis of why that's the case.

As Glenn McDonald, a former Spotify software engineer and author of the book You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changed Music, told Billboard via email, “nothing else they do gets as much marketing/branding energy put into it.” At the end of every Wrapped recap, Spotify offers personalized badges that flood X, Instagram and TikTok — the latter two benefitting from integrations announced in November that make it easier to share content. The difference between luxury clothing brands’ prices can be explained by amounts spent on splashy advertisements and celebrity endorsements, not just the cost of materials and labor.

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