Spotify Wrapped – The Best Way to Use Data

Spotify did something absolutely brilliant last week. They released their annual “Wrapped” collection of music which turns the usual expectations of data collection on its head. It’s a given that anytime we enter our personal info or offer up our online behavior to various social platforms all of it is black boxed and served, in some fashion, back to us. We may not know how but we presume it is. Our personal and behavioral data becomes the toll we pay for most things we do in the digital world.

Spotify gifted back my behavioral data in my own “Your Decade Wrapped” and surprised me with a short list of my most listened to artists and songs in the nearly ten years that I have been a member. It was a superb move and offered me insights into my own listening preferences that I hadn’t imagined. This is one of the best examples of using data for the good. Imagine if we could say the same of the big data collectors like the credit agencies, our government and our financial institutions. Nicely done Spotify!

Here’s my 2019 Wrapped