Spotify Wrapped: when was the first time it released - and what is Spotify’s goal with the trend

• Spotify’s annual round-ups have been going on for almost a decade. 
• But when exactly did the company start its Wrapped campaigns? 
• Spotify has previously admitted it wants to cultivate a sense of ‘FOMO’ with Wrapped to attract users. 

Spotify is preparing to unwrap an early treat for music listeners - as our yearly round-up is just over the horizon. The annual - and increasingly splashy - Wrapped drop is sure to cause headlines when it is delivered directly to our apps towards the end of 2024. 

An exact date has yet to be confirmed, but fans still have time to influence the outcome as the streaming giant has said multiple times in the past that it does not stop counting on October 31. It has traditionally been released between late November and early December, so only a few weeks from now. 

But while Spotify Wrapped is now an annual pre-Christmas tradition for many of us, as the season draws closer you might be wondering when exactly did it start. And what Spotify’s goal is with it. 

When was the first Spotify Wrapped? 

So, there are actually two answers to this question. Spotify launched its first annual round-up campaign in 2015, according to HighTouch, but it was actually called Year In Music back then. 

Spotify Wrapped, with its current branding, did not actually start until the winter of 2016. The first round-up happened nine years ago, but it took until eight years ago for the wrap-up to get the name we all recognise now. 

Why does Spotify release Wrapped? 

The simple answer is because it is a massive hit each year, figures from a few years ago in a Forbes article that 60 million users engaged with the Wrapped story in the week after it went live in 2019. And it was mentioned 1.2 million times on Twitter (which is now called X under current leadership) during that same period five years ago. 

But, Spotify has also admitted that it uses Wrapped as a kind of ‘fear of missing out’ marketing to draw in new users. People enjoy the dopamine hit of sharing around their round-up results with their friends, family and strangers online - I was in an office when it dropped in 2021 and we all stopped what we were doing to show our Spotify Wrapped to each other. 

Speaking to Forbes in 2019, June Sauvaget, Spotify’s global head of consumer and product marketing, said: “This also creates this FOMO effect that happens and that inherently entices new users to consider Spotify, so it’s a flywheel effect.” 

Have you been convinced to join Spotify because of Wrapped? Share your experience by emailing me: [email protected].