đ What's your musical moon sign?
Itâs âflattery through data miningâ ...and it's kinda fun
Before we get started, check out my review of Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag in Interstellar Flight Press, published today! Itâs a lovely graphic novel. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a sweet, thoughtful summer read.
Now, on to the newsletter.
I wrote a few months ago about how Spotify uses specificity to make its brand more memorable.
Remember this hilarious ad copy?
Dear person who played âSorryâ 42 times on Valentineâs Day, what did you do?
The fan-made âI donât give a s*** what the calendar says, itâs christmasâ playlist is about to be correct for the first time in 2018.
Be as loving as the person who put 48 Ed Sheeran songs on their âI Love Gingersâ playlist.
Thereâs an implicit message here that positions the streaming behemoth as something beyond a simple music distribution service. Functionally, theyâre saying, we may be a streaming platform. But spiritually (if you will), weâre a way to be more authentically you.
Thatâs whether youâre a person who really messed up on Valentineâs Day, a Christmas-in-July type, or an Ed Sheeran superfan.
The next natural progression for this branding is to take it past a generalized âyouâ and toward an individual âyou.â Whichââbecause of the nature of their serviceââSpotify is totally able to do.
If youâre a user, you know that the platform has been doing its âWrappedâ feature for a while, with âTop Songsâ playlists where, each December, one has to confront just how many times theyâve replayed âCruel Summerâ over the course of a calendar year.
But this June, Spotify took their efforts beyond the annual retrospective and launched the eminently shareable âOnly Youâ campaign.
The experience included insights about which quirks (allegedly) distinguish your listening behaviors from everyone else on the app, along with a music-themed birth chart and some interactive activities, such as picking which of your favorite artists youâd invite to a dinner party.
Not everyone was totally charmed. Suzy Exposito at the LA Times called it âan attempt at flattery through data-mining.â Thatâs a great headline and also a fair assessment. Personally, Iâve come to terms with the fact that Spotify knows me better than I know myself, and I found the feature entertaining. But I didnât really feel the need to share the screenshots beyond a Whatsapp group or two. (Maybe because I already incessantly talk about my music taste both here and IRL.)
Whether or not this experience works comes down to personal taste. And, I suppose, if youâve interacted enough with the algorithm to feel like it really âgetsâ you. But from a storytelling perspective, I thought it was a smart effort. I work a lot with organizations who want to tell a particular story in their marketing. And I always start with a conversation about how theyâre backing that story up with their user experience. Something that here, Spotify is doing really effectively.
This mid-year campaign is a great way for Spotify to âshow donât tellâ when it comes to this goal of positioning itself as something more than a streaming service. Any app can help you play music. But how many can tell you youâre a Bad Buddy sun sign with Kali Uchis rising?
Like some sort of musical 23andMe, Spotify is cultivating its usersâ personal connection to the app by making them feel seen. Sometimes the most effective story is the one thatâs all about you.
Have a great week, everyone!
âErin
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Erin Becker (she/her)
Writer | Communications Consultant | Storytelling Expert
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