Spotify Wrapped — the annual compilation of users’ most listened to tracks on the music streaming platform — is here for 2023. (Dreamstime/TNS)
Bright colors and intricate animations featured in Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay and more can mask the fact consumers’ data is persistently collected right under their noses.
Arnab Nandi, an Ohio State associate professor of computer science and engineering, said “data storytelling” — converting raw data into a visual format and presenting it in a narrative style — is on the rise across several social media applications and platforms. Data storytelling often relies on casualness and relatability to be effective, Yvette Shen, an Ohio State associate professor in design, said in an email.
“If I just show you raw data, or if I just show you a visualization, it doesn’t convey the journey that you might want to be on when you’re trying to get insights, so to complete the trajectory of going from data to insight, being able to have a storytelling mechanism built in is really helpful,” Nandi said.
Shen said notable examples of data storytelling — Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, Reddit Recap, Letterboxd Year in Review, etc. — make users feel special while fulfilling large companies’ material interests. Findings that emerge from data storytelling presentations often lack significant depth and don’t offer users any meaningful insights on personal growth, contrary to how they may appear.
“These campaigns cleverly package themselves as anti-corporate through their visual style and personalized ‘data stories,’ while actually promoting big data and corporate interests,” Shen said in an email. “Therefore, for those interested in the ‘quantified self’-related stats and reports, it’s best to approach these with a sense of fun and not take them too seriously.”
Shen said when she discussed Spotify Wrapped with her design students, they took note of how its design elements strongly evoke early-web nostalgia.
“I’ve also noticed a similar enthusiasm in my classes for retro, early-internet aesthetics: neon colors, pixelated graphics, and Microsoft Paint-style visuals,” Shen said. “It looks better in motion in the case of Spotify Wrapped.”
The intense visual appeal of Wrapped lends itself to increased user engagement and eventual online virality, Shen said.
“Capturing user attention and encouraging them to explore and interact with their data is key,” Shen said. “It serves as a tool for brand reinforcement and promotion.”
Shen said the customized feel of Spotify Wrapped, bolstered by features like “Your Listening Personality” and “Sound Town,” ensures users feel more attached to the app.
“It also provides users with a sense of individuality and emotional connection,” Shen said. “The music listening experience becomes a direct reflection of their identity.”
On the other hand, Nandi said the types of data Spotify collects and repackages can include a combination of many users’ listening information. He said doing this responsibly is important because at a smaller sample size than Spotify, this could contribute to information leakage.
“If I was just looking at the number of times I have played Taylor Swift, it would be something, but if I was told that I was the 0.001% listener of Taylor Swift, then I both have my player count and now I know something about what the average player count is or what the rest of the people’s listening behaviors are,” Nandi said.
Nandi said another issue related to modern-day data collection is the sharing of data with third parties. Internet users should be aware of data collection when evaluating certain apps’ terms and conditions, he said.
“If [data collection] is used to improve your own listening experience and your own overall experience with Spotify the app, you might be OK with it,” Nandi said. “However, if there are other purposes that you did not anticipate that your data is being used for, you might not be OK with it.”
Nandi said the main motivation behind companies’ choices to collect people’s data is bolstering commercial efforts.
“One of the most popular reasons is advertising,” Nandi said. “Having information about you is very valuable to someone if they want to sell you a certain type of product and they want to find people who are of a certain age or demographic or have certain interests.”
Nandi said a larger cause for concern when it comes to social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Airbuds — a widget that allows users to view their friends’ comprehensive listening histories — is the sheer amount of data collected over time.
“One thing that I do encourage people to pay attention to is that an independent data point may not be worrisome, or a thing to be even concerned about, but remember that a lot of this is being considered in aggregate,” Nandi said. “So one post that you post may not reveal a lot of information, however, a lot of us have been around on social media for a very long time, so you may be looking at 1000 posts or 10,000 posts over let’s say, a decade, that is enough to provide a lot of long-term insights.”
Nandi said this accumulated data can be used for a wide variety of reasons, be it for the use of third parties or for more utilitarian reasons that benefit the user.
“You could think of it as if your tastes change, then if your posts on social media start reflecting that change of tastes, then that will be a good time to target you for advertising,” Nandi said. “Simultaneously, it could also be used for functional purposes, so for example, it could be used to recommend new social media channels for you to follow so if you start getting into woodworking, someone might recommend some more DIY YouTube channels.”
At the end of the day, Shen said data storytelling gives internet users a way to celebrate their personal habits on a yearly basis and bolster the sense of community they feel with social media mutuals.
“For those active on social media, sharing this recap can be a joyful way to engage with their network, prompt interactions, and foster a sense of belonging within a larger community of individuals with similar interests and behaviors,” Shen said.
