Tag: online music streaming

  • Spotify Wrapped: The Whole Story and the Hidden Marketing Behind It

    The quote quoted above is probably my favorite. There is probably not a single day when any person is away from art. Art is so closely aligned with the reality that it is impossible to separate the two things. They are so much together that we cannot imagine these two separated for even a single day of ours. One such art is music. It’s quite a popular way to add a soundtrack to whatever you are doing.

    Do you listen to music? Dude, what kind of question is that? Everyone listens to music. This is quite true; no one asks these sorts of questions. Do you now like to directly ask about what is your most liked genre? Speaking of music, the most famous music provider/streamer is Spotify.

    Spotify never leaves a stone unturned to make customers woo. Interestingly, much like Spotify’s strategies, gaining more TikTok followers can also be achieved through engaging content and clever marketing tactics. Many brands leverage influencer partnerships to increase their reach, thus effectively expanding their audience base on TikTok. They do their most popular marketing campaign called “Spotify wrapped” and many cool tricks to make its user retention an all-time high. This article is just about that specifically and especially of all the marketing tactics. We will discuss how the Spotify Wrapped Campaign has managed to hit the right note with music lovers all around the world.

    “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” ― Pablo Picasso

    About Spotify
    The Fluidity in Spotify
    Consumer Psychology
    How Spotify uses User Inputs and Machine Learning
    The Spotify Wrapped Experience
    Spotify Trying to Wrap up a Whole Decade
    Features of Spotify Wrapped
    How to Find Spotify Wrapped
    Why Spotify Wrapped is Popular
    Wacky Advertisements of Spotify

    About Spotify

    You would be living under a rock if you didn’t know what Spotify is. We all know that Spotify is an audio streaming platform available on all devices all over the world. Surprisingly, Spotify was founded in 2006, and in such a short span of time, it has become the most popular streaming service in the world.

    Spotify has made a place in the hearts of audiophiles all around the world. The reason is the fact that they are a music streaming platform and everyone is a music lover. Also, they are famous for their wacky advertising marketing faces and exact usage of consumer psychology for that matter.

    Once you sign up for this audio streaming service and begin using it, they will notice your listening habits. As you go about interacting more and more with Spotify, listening to music and podcasts, Spotify will get to know you more.

    With all these data inputs, Spotify suggests more songs and creates personalized playlists for you. This personalization is absolutely loved by people who use Spotify; the fact that they can discover a new jam every now and then, based on Spotify’s intelligence, just connects with the audience.

    Spotify Personalized Playlist | Spotify Wrapped Campaign
    Spotify Personalized Playlist – Spotify Wrapped Campaign

    Let us know how this works, and then we will later jump to how the “Spotify Wrapped” works.

    The Fluidity in Spotify

    When we talk about a business operating in the area of music, then we can think of the massive audience that they have to cater to. For the record, it is true that Spotify has to cater to a huge audience, but whatever they do in their marketing upfront, it is not messy at all. The point that I am trying to uncover here is that Spotify has fluidity in its works. They know that things can get super boring super fast for people of this generation, so it is imperative to experiment bit by bit.

    This fluidity in their marketing team helps them to garner consumers and thus make them a paying member of their line of work. Elegant use of consumer psychology often works in this quest for customer retention. Let us see a bit about how this segment works,

    Consumer Psychology

    Spotify Monthly Active Users Worldwide (Q1 2021 - Q3 2024) | Spotify Wrapped Campaign Analysis
    Spotify Monthly Active Users Worldwide (Q1 2021 – Q3 2024)

    Consumer behavior or consumer psychology is the study of individuals, groups of individuals, and all the activities and thinking processes. It is mainly associated with the purchase, sale, use, and disposal of goods and even services. Consumer behavior also consists of how emotions, attitudes, and other preferences affect consumers’ buying behavior. This also includes the hit-and-trial method of getting customers loyal. This experiment makes corporations learn more about customers and thus retain and make more the retention of people transacting with firms. It is a very common practice in this internet era.


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    How Spotify uses User Inputs and Machine Learning

    Listening is everything – Spotify’s motto

    Spotify is high on artificial intelligence and machine learning. They know the patterns that you listen to music too; they know every input needed to suggest the next song. These inputs allow quite everything at the Spotify headquarters. ‘Listening is everything’ is the motto of this audio streamer. While you listen to songs that they provide, they listen to your listening patterns. They thus create a pattern that can eventually predict your mood and the genre of music you may want to listen to in the future.

    There are half a billion people that listen to music online and the vast majority are doing so illegally. But if we bring those people over to the legal side and Spotify, what is going to happen is we are going to double the music industry and that will lead to more artists creating great new music. – Daniel Ek (Founder and CEO at Spotify)

    Daniel knew very well that the music market was hugely scattered in many directions. To organize music lovers from all over the world, he knew he needed to take support of technology. So he chose the top-notch and what we call state-of-the-art machine learning. Organizing the market into an industry that has streaming as a habit takes a lot of muscle.

    Years of deliberate practice and features like “Discover Weekly” and monthly reels put them high on the charts. At this point in time, Spotify has emerged as the best player among audio streaming service providers. This also shows how the behavior of the general public all over the world has changed. The song, music, and artiste industry went up a huge scale and turned from being an unorganized sector to a well-organized sector. This growth is notable, and Spotify is heading the efforts.

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    The Spotify Wrapped Experience

    Spotify Wrapped 2024 |  Spotify Wrapped Case Study
    Spotify Wrapped 2024

    Spotify Wrapped is the ultimate amalgamation of machine learning and your musical tastes. These two things on the plate create real magic. People yearn for this magic, and Spotify is the head of this department for this magic in the whole world. They started doing wraps up for its users in the year 2016.

    Spotify Wrapped from that year became a hit viral marketing technique for Spotify. The wrap includes all the songs users have been listening to in the past year, the genre they were the most into, and their favorite artists, along with minutes streamed and other data. It included the top five musicians that users have listened to. Moreover, it is not just another marketing campaign but a huge viral social media campaign.

    Every year, millions of Spotify users share their Spotify wrapped to their social media profiles, which boosts Spotify. In the app store, the Spotify app has historically seen a jump at the end of the year because it is released at the end of the year.

    Spotify sends an email to every person who is eligible for the year inwrapped. For many people, this email is their favorite email of the year. It has become some kind of ritual for all audiophiles/music streamers all over the world.

    The reason people love this form of advertising is that it is too personal. This personal touch (obviously in a very good way) is made possible with the advent of technology. This personalization made Spotify the brand that it is today. The moment you click the link, they will begin showing you the year-wrapped reel.

    Beginning with words like “If 2021 was a movie, you were the main character”. Dude! That’s encouraging. Then comes the next page showing how many new artists you discovered this year. Then comes the top genres you listened to the most and how many genres you discovered. Then, the most-streamed song/single and the most-streamed day. How can we explain this without using the word “Awesome”?

    How is Spotify Wrapped Made

    The purpose of the “Spotify Wrapped” campaign is simple: to promote the music streaming platform. Spotify, however, says that “wrapped” is a way of returning the favor to Spotify users for the past year. This way, users get to know more about their musical tastes, and the data can be helpful in rediscovering music again. It is a win-win situation for both the streaming giant as well as the music listeners. Whatever the purpose, the Spotify Wrapped campaign fulfills the needs of both the provider and the receiver in this transaction in this manner.


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    Spotify Trying to Wrap up a Whole Decade

    Spotify Wrapped – The Playlist of the Decade

    As people were wrapping up a year, Spotify thought bigger and better. The whole damn thought of wrapping a full decade. They tried to put together all the hit tracks of the past decade in a single playlist and tried to create magic out of this. The reactions were amazing, and their video got great views. This was done in the dreadful year 2020. Spotify truly knows how to set the background soundtrack right.

    Features of Spotify Wrapped

    Spotify Wrapped provides insights into your music preferences, top artists, genres, fun trivia, and statistics. Here are some of the key features of Spotify Wrapped:

    1. Your Listening Personality: Spotify Wrapped assigns you a “Listening Personality” based on your listening habits. This personality type is determined by your genre diversity, listening time, and the time of day you typically listen to music.
    2. Your Artist Revealed: The feature displays your year’s top 5 artists and listening habits. You’ll see statistics like total listening time for each artist, their top songs, and the time you listen to them.
    3. Your Top Songs and Genres: Spotify Wrapped reveals your top five songs and genres of the year. You’ll also see statistics like the total minutes spent listening to each song and genre and the top artists within each genre.
    4. Artist Message: Personalize Wrapped with “Your Artist Message” from top artists. Explore video messages in Wrapped, like Taylor Swift and Jung Kook. Use Blend to compare music with friends and let Spotify’s AI DJ share insights.
    5. Your Music Evolution
      This feature highlights how your music tastes evolved throughout the year. It identifies distinct musical phases with descriptors, genres, and artists, along with a personalized playlist that combines favorites with new recommendations.
    6. AI DJ
      The AI DJ provides commentary on your music listening habits, offering insights into your top tracks and artists of the year. This feature is now available in both English and Spanish.
    7. AI Playlist
      Premium users can create custom playlists based on prompts like “my top genres” or “artists similar to my top artists,” powered by Spotify’s AI.
    8. Your Top Artist Reimagined
      Fans can now see their longest listening streak with their favorite artist and learn what percentage of listeners they fall into globally.
    9. Your Music Videos Playlist
      In regions where music videos are in beta, Premium users get a curated playlist featuring music videos of their most loved artists from 2024.
    10. Expanded Artist and Podcaster Messages
      Hear from more of your top artists and podcast creators, including stars like Billie Eilish, Usher, and creators from popular podcasts like Crime Junkie and Anything Goes.

    How to Find Spotify Wrapped

    To find your Spotify Wrapped 2024, ensure your Spotify app is updated to the latest version on iOS or Android. Open the app, and you’ll see the Wrapped feed on your Home screen, where you can explore your personalized listening highlights, including top songs, artists, genres, and more. Alternatively, visit Spotify.com/Wrapped to scan the QR code and access your Wrapped experience in the app. This feature is free and available to all Spotify users.

    Spotify introduced its initial year-end review, “Year in Review,” in 2013, utilizing streaming data. The concept evolved into “Wrapped” by 2016, incorporating unique features like “audio auras” and “listening personality types” derived from user data.

    1. Wrapped’s personalized insights, visualizations, and gamification features make it highly engaging for users. Comparing listening habits with friends adds extra excitement to the fun and interesting statistics.
    2. Spotify Wrapped promotes social sharing among users, creating a sense of community as they share their music preferences on social media.
    3. Wrapped’s “Artist Engagement” feature lets top artists send personalized messages to fans, creating an exclusive and engaging experience.
    4. Wrapped is a cultural phenomenon eagerly awaited by users each year, demonstrating its personal resonance.

    Spotify Wrapped 2024

    Spotify Wrapped 2024 is here, offering fans a fun and personalized way to look back at their last year’s music taste. This year, new features like Your Music Evolution reveal how your musical tastes changed. Spotify’s amazing and cool feature, AI DJ provides commentary about your top songs and artists. Premium users can create custom playlists with the new AI Playlist tool, and fans can enjoy special messages from top artists like Billie Eilish and KAROL G.

    Wrapped also integrates more deeply into the app, showing how your favorite content ranks in your listening history. You can also share your results in the Spotify Wrapped easily on social media and messaging apps. For creators, Wrapped provides insights into fan engagement, and exclusive partnerships, like with FC Barcelona, bring Wrapped moments to life off-platform.


    A Detailed Look at Spotify’s Marketing Strategies
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    Wacky Advertisements of Spotify

    When everyone knows that the human attention span has reduced a lot, this calls for a modern solution. As the meme would say, “Modern problems require modern solutions.” The news for the hour is meme marketing.

    Wacky advertisements can leave a mark on the conscience of people wandering online and elsewhere. CRED does it, Spotify does it, and every smart company does it. Okay, every smart company who knows the power of humor does it. Here are some examples: Though it is time for Christmas, audiophiles must be waiting for their Spotify-wrapped year reel. Spotify added a little fun marketing ping to it. They made promotional videos featuring famous songs of the year. By famous songs, we mean the most streamed songs of the year.

    Spotify India – Love Lesson 101

    Here is one example of the blockbuster “Lambiyaan.” The description read – “If 2021 was an exam, spending the nights with Raatan Lambiyan always felt like the right answer! Find out more about the music you listened to in 2021 with #SpotifyWrapped”.

    Spotify Wrapped Marketing Campaign

    Spotify India – Dil Filmy Toh Suno Filmy

    Another promotional video starred the song “Nadiyon paar,” which was also a hit this year. It was streamed millions of times. They also have a marketing campaign named ‘Dil filmy to suno filmy’. It shares the love of Bollywood songs with the general public. While showcasing the basic human tendency to humm a song that you heard somewhere, here, have a look at one of the videos.

    Spotify Wrapped Marketing Campaign

    Spotify India – Music Magic Hai

    Spotify Music Magic Hai Ad

    In Spotify’s “Music Magic Hai” ad, a dad is driving his daughters to school while a Punjabi song plays. The girls start grooving to the music, and the dad, caught up in the energy, joins in too. The catchy tagline, “Jo daddy ko daddy cool bnade voh music magic hai,” highlights how music has the power to turn an ordinary moment into something fun.

    The fact that they connected two things to each other makes the recipe for perfect videos. They connected trending soundtracks to everyday situations that people faced. That became the perfect recipe for these videos to strike a chord with streamers. Their use of consumer behavior is helping them garner more views and more streams and downloads.

    Conclusion

    The very first principle that Spotify follows is the “rule of personalization”. They know that personalized marketing boosts customer loyalty. Through this feature of ‘Year wrapped,’ they are trying to do the same. If they manage to get a personalized touch to every single person using Spotify, then it will go a long way and become a huge factor in driving sales and revenue.

    This has been made possible via the help of new-age technologies like machine learning and better management of user data. Needless to say, this viral marketing campaign has gone a long way into audiophiles’ hearts.

    Not only this, but this is also can be said to be a major motivator for selling subscription plans to users of Spotify. A popular quote goes like this: “Data is 21st century’s gold”. This is the golden rule for companies that try to give personalized services to their consumers. Spotify is not an exception, and what it is doing with data is quite magically promising and thoughtful.

    FAQs

    Is Spotify Wrapped only for premium users?

    No, Spotify wrapped is for both premium and free users.

    How does Spotify create Wrapped?

    Spotify tracks users’ listening habits from the period from January 1 to October 31 and then compiles it into a playlist at the end of the year.

    When did Spotify launch the Spotify Wrapped marketing campaign?

    Spotify released the viral marketing campaign ‘Spotify Wrapped’ in 2016.

    What was Spotify using to market the “Wrapped” promotion?

    Spotify uses a multifaceted marketing strategy to promote its annual “Wrapped” campaign. This includes social media integration, email marketing, targeted advertising, and more.

    Why is Spotify Wrapped so successful?

    Spotify Wrapped is successful because it is personalized, social, and engaging. It allows users to see their listening habits in a fun and interesting way, and it encourages them to share their results with friends.

  • How Gaana.com Became India’s Top Music Streaming Service

    Online music streaming in India has been flourishing rapidly for the past three to four years. People in our country have always been fond of music be it the classical Indian genres or the new pop-hits of Bollywood or Hollywood. The internet today is being served at very nominal prices; the lucrative online music industry is going at its peak. Everybody wants to stream music online as it’s easy to listen anytime, anywhere, and according to ones one wish and taste of music.

    According to the reports given by Statista, the online music streaming industry in India contributes more than 213 million dollars and more than 90 million users and this rate is rapidly increasing at 1.6 percent per annum. With the increasing subscribers and users of top music streaming platforms, there is one app that has taken over all others in the Indian music streaming market which is Gaana. In this article you will know more about how Gaana became India’s top audio streaming music service, defeating all others.

    Gaana.com – Latest News

    June 26, 2021 – Gaana raises $40 million in a fresh debt investment round from its existing investor, Tencent and is likely to raise more soon.

    September 3, 2020 – Tencent and Times Internet helped Gaana raise around Rs 375 crore in a debt funding round, which was the first investment in two years since their last funding round led by Tencent.

    February 25, 2020 – Gaana leads the other Indian music streaming apps with a 30% market share in January, as per the OTT Audience Measurement Insights report.

    History of Gaana.com

    Since 2010, Gaana.com was lead by Avinash Mudaliar as he was one of the founding members of this platform. He left the organization and Pawan Agrawal became the new business head in the year 2013. It is only then when the company released its mobile app for Android, iOS, Blackberry, and other devices. In the same year, Gaana.com came into partnership with the South Indian Music Companies Association which gave them the rights and access to 79 different labels of music.

    After Micromax acquired a stake at Gaana.com in the year 2016, Prashan Agrawal became the CEO. The IIT Kanpur and ISB MBA graduate transformed the platform completely after which the company saw huge success. He brought a revolution to India’s digital music platform and grew his company’s market up to seven times its size.


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    Gaana and music streaming industry revolution

    The music streaming industry saw a huge growth after the launch of 4G in India and the past two years it has grown seven times as Indians preferred consuming music online. Since the first time users of mobile internet have coupled with easy easily availability of technology even in the rural parts of India, the industry has seen a huge success. Such factors helped Gaana to reach every part of our country and their user base started multiplying rapidly. When Gaana. started gaining popularity under the leadership of Prashan, the company didn’t stop growing.

    Today Gaana offers music in more than twenty-one languages and has a base of more than 3.3 billion songs from all genres. In December 2019, Gaana claimed to have more than 125 million monthly active users which jumped to more than 185 million monthly active users in August 2020. The streaming platform is leading in the Indian music streaming industry and in terms of consumer preference. Even though a huge global competition like Spotify entered India last year, the customer choice in the segment remained Gaana.

    According to the company, 35% of the total contribution is from regional music. The platform also has more than 5000 users generated podcasts per month in many languages and genres. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and lockdowns imposed in the country, the company has seen a 13% surge in the consumer consumption of music and podcasts. Though the app reported a rise in the overall usage of their app, Gaana failed to grow to its full potential. The company showed a mere 2.65% rise in its operating revenue, which reached Rs 123 crore at the end of this fiscal year compared to Rs 120 crore revenue reported at the end of FY20.

    The use of Artificial Intelligence

    Gaana has also been a piece of the leading music streaming industry in terms of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and driving innovation with Machine Learning Space. The platform has various unique AI-based algorithms that help its users to offer song recommendations based on their music listening patterns. Gaana has also witnessed success because of its voice assistant search that has been very popular among the millennials as well as elderly as many people find it hard to type.


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    Unique Features of Gaana

    The innovative services offered by the platform have to lead to massive success. There are a few unique features of the platform that helps the company stands out in the industry:

    • Gaana was the first music application in India that introduced 24 x 7 online entertainment content feed

    • The AI-led personalized recommendations help the users in giving utmost satisfaction from the platform

    • Gaana also offers features like play along with lyrics, vertical videos, and multilingual voice assistant search

    • The Smart downloads feature enables the premium users to automatically download songs based on their listening history.

    • After acquiring Jukebox studios, Gaana is now accessible to more than 5000 offline locations such as pubs and bars

    • Gaana offers various other products apart from music which includes podcasts, hotshots, radio, etc.

    Launch of HotShots after the ban of ‘Tiktok’

    Soon after the Indian government took the decision to ban the use of many Chinese apps in India including TikTok which was a social media sensation, Gaana launched HotShots which was a similar tool. The intuitive and intriguing feature in Gaana helped its users to create and share short videos and stories just like the popular Instagram Reels. Many renowned influencers like Neha Kakkar, Darshan Raval, Jannat Zubair, Baba Jackson, and many others joined the Gaana HotShots platform to created and share exclusive content in various categories and industries like comedy, music, lip-sync and dance.


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    With the increase in the number of subscribers on such a frequent basis, top players in the music streaming industry like Apple Music, JioSaavn, Spotify, etc are battling it out to capture the Indian market.


    Furthermore, the company and its team believe that the operations of the company are soon going to help them in earning good profits. Gaana aims to provide content that is convenient and enjoyable for every Indian. An average user who uses Gaana App spends about 30 minutes in a single go on an average basis. Today the company’s 80% users are loyal to them who have provided them with the feedback that they love the platform for its songs, podcasts, short videos, and HotShots.

    The company wants to reach 250 million followers in the next year after it has successfully attained its targeted reach of 185 million monthly active users in August 2020. The leading music streaming application has already raised funds worth $206.2 million from its 3 investors, Tencent and Micromax Informatics being the primary ones. The latest funding round was a debt round led by Tencent that pumped in $40 million into the Indian music streaming giant on June 2021, post which the company claims to be valued at $570 million.

    Gaana promises its customers that the platform will continue to give the best possible experience to its customers, launch new features timely, keep expanding its music library, and keep improving its intuitive music recommendations.