Towards the end of each year the audio streaming platform Spotify releases its Spotify Wrapped data analysis. Whilst at first glance it provides an individual user with certain claims to fame and insights on the way they’ve listened to music or podcasts that year, it also highlights the sheer volume of information that Spotify have recorded in their data platform.
In an article published in April 2024 Spotify stated that they are processing 1.4 trillion data points every day. Those would include plays of particular tracks or podcasts, subscriptions to podcasts, likes of tracks and even searches for a particular song or artist. Spotify have built their own bespoke data platform to support this volume of activity because the insights it gives into how users interact with their product helps them to further enhance their service.
Spotify are very open about the way they record, store and analyse the data they collect with their engineering team having their own website at engineering.atspotify.com where they post information about their use of data. Each of those 1.4 trillion data points is recorded in their event delivery infrastructure which feeds into the data platform where the data is processed and stored. Spotify is an extremely data-driven organisation, they use the data platform to report on their own key performance indicators and to improve their product whilst also making it available to users through in app recommendations and in the more fun Spotify Wrapped.
Let’s look at a few insights from members of the Infotex team in their 2024 Spotify Wrapped. One person found themselves in the top 0.001% of users listening to a particular track – achieved by listening to it 166 times.
Not all songs required a high number of listens to get into the top listeners category. It only took 3 listens to get into the top 0.5% of listeners of this Weezer track.
One Oasis fan found themselves in the top 0.5% of listeners for that band this year, kick started after their reunion tour announcement.
This year Spotify have decided to theme some of their insights, one user found their October listening described as a Heist Happy Rock Britpop month:
If you want to see the most popular artists, songs, albums, audiobooks and podcasts across the world you can visit Spotify’s Newsroom for the details.
