Spotify 2021 Wrapped Is All About the ‘New Normal’

Spotify 2021 Wrapped is now live. The personalised user experience, which the platform has been releasing for the last three years since 2019 on the first day of December, features top artists, albums, songs, playlists, and podcasts that you have played throughout the year. In addition to the dedicated Wrapped experience for mobile users, Spotify has released the top lists for both India and global markets to highlight the top songs, albums, playlists, and podcasts, as well as the most streamed artist on the platform. This year’s Spotify Wrapped is based on the theme of ‘totally normal’ — to celebrate the unprecedented time owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Users on the Spotify app for Android and iOS can look at their personalised Wrapped experience to get an overall idea of what all the tracks, playlists, and podcasts they have played in 2021. Spotify has also introduced some new features to deliver a fresh experience over what it offered in 2020 and 2019.

One of the most notable additions to Spotify Wrapped is the cinematic experience that the company calls 2021: The Movie. This brings all your top songs paired with classic scenes from a movie. Spotify has also worked with an aura expert to visualise your audio aura on the app, based on your top two music moods.

For the first time, Spotify has also introduced playing cards on Wrapped to bring an interactive data-based game where some statements about your listening this year will be shown, and you will have to guess which are true.

Spotify has this time introduced an interactive data-based game
Photo Credit: Spotify

Spotify users can also tap the new Blend feature to see how their 2021 music taste matches up with friends and stream their blended playlists. If you want to share what you listened to, you can also put your Wrapped on social media.

Specifically for this year, Spotify has added videos from more than 170 artists and creators thanking their fans on the platform. You will get these videos if you have a song by one of the participating artists in ‘Your Top Songs 2021′ or ‘Your Artists Revealed’ playlists.

There will also be Spotify Clips for Podcasts that feature special thank you messages from podcast hosts. You can watch them by visiting a participating show’s page on Spotify.

You can also share your Wrapped cards on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.

It is important to note that Spotify Wrapped is visible to all free or premium users who have streamed at least 30 tracks for over 30 seconds. If you aren’t among those, you can look at the global and India top trends below. You can also listen to the 2021 highlights from the dedicated online experience. 

Top 2021 Spotify trends in India

Most streamed artist

Other top artists

• Pritam
• A. R. Rahman
• BTS
• Tanishk Bagchi
• Shreya Ghoshal
• Jubin Nautiyal
• Neha Kakkar
• Anirudh Ravichander
• Vishal-Shekhar

Top 3 most-streamed female artists

• Shreya Ghoshal
• Neha Kakkar
• Asees Kaur

Most streamed song

• Raataan Lambiyan by Asees Kaur, Jubin Nautiyal, Tanishk Bagchi

Other top songs

• Ranjha by Jasleen Royal, B Praak, Anvita Dutt
• Brown Munde by AP Dhillon, Gminxr, Gurinder Gill, Shinda Kahlon
• STAY (with Justin Bieber) by The Kid LAROI, Justin Bieber
• Lut Gaye by Jubin Nautiyal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Manoj Muntashir
• Butter by BTS, Jenna Andrews
• Agar Tum Saath Ho by Alka Yagnik, Arijit Singh, A.R. Rahman, Irshad Kamil
• Tu Aake Dekhle by King, Arpan Kumar
• Shayad by Pritam, Irshad Kamil
• MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X, David Biral, Denzel Baptiste, Omer Fedi

Top 10 most streamed albums in India

• Shershaah
• Kabir Singh
• Moosetape
• Love Yourself 結 ‘Answer’
• Love Aaj Kal
• Justice
• BE
• MAP OF THE SOUL : 7
• Master
• Future Nostalgia

Top 5 genres with highest year-on-year growth in India

• Concurso De Talentos Argentino
• Indie Rock Italiano
• Kyrgyz Hip Hop
• Sinhala Indie
• Musica Ponta-Grossense

Most popular podcasts

• The Mythpat Podcast
• The Ranveer Show
• The Stories of Mahabharata
• Naallanaa Murukku – The RJ Balaji Podcast
• Srimad Bhagavad-Gita Adhyaya 1
• The Joe Rogan Experience
• Speak Better English with Harry
• On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• Bhaskar Bose (Hindi Thriller Podcast)
• Unconventional Ghalib

Most streamed playlists

• Top Hits Hindi
• New Music Punjabi
• Punjabi 101
• Today’s Top Hits
• This Is BTS

Top 2021 Spotify trends globally

Most streamed artists globally

• Bad Bunny
• Taylor Swift
• BTS
• Drake
• Justin Bieber

Most streamed songs globally

• Drivers license by Olivia Rodrigo
• MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X
• STAY (with Justin Bieber) by The Kid LAROI
• Good 4 u by Olivia Rodrigo
• Levitating (featuring DaBaby) by Dua Lipa

Most streamed albums globally

• SOUR by Olivia Rodigo
• Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa
• Justice by Justin Bieber
• = by Ed Sheeran
• Planet Her by Doja Cat

Most popular podcasts globally

• The Joe Rogan Experience
• Call Her Daddy
• Crime Junkie
• TED Talks Daily
• The Daily

Spotify also revealed that while the Top Hits Hindi remained the top playlist in the country, it doubled the follower count from last year to 636,000 followers in 2021.

On the podcasts part, Spotify found that 50 percent of its top 10 podcasts consumed this year were the platform’s Originals. This was similar to last year. Local content also stood out in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata where PURIJAGANNADH (Telugu), Naallanaa Murukku – The RJ Balaji Podcast (Tamil) and Sunday Suspense (Bengali) take the lead, respectively. However, The Ranveer Show emerged as the most popular podcast in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Pune.

Spotify also found that Ahmedabad, Lucknow, and Jaipur were among the top 10 cities that stream podcasts on the platform.

In addition to its users, Spotify has also rolled out Wrapped creator experience for podcasters and artists. Creators can find it as a microsite through the Spotify for Artists and Spotify for Podcasters.

Spotify also told Gadgets 360 that it provides a custom personalised Spotify “Wrapped” experience to artists and their teams on its platform to let them learn facts about their fan’s listening throughout the year. It is not just limited to the number of playlists they were added to, number of countries their music was played in for the first time, and the journey of their top song, among others. This gives artists an opportunity to share these insights and engage with their fans, the company said.