The Human Machine Behind Spotify Wrapped

Spotify Wrapped might be built on data, but according to its global brand lead, it’s powered by people – hundreds of them.

“The best insight I can share is that it truly is made by Wrapped fans (internally) for Wrapped fans (our Spotify community),” says Angela Leffell, global brand lead – brand + creative at Spotify, speaking with LBB. “It’s something that has become a passionate rallying cry within Spotify. It’s truly our love letter to those who spent the year with us and every cultural insight, story, and design choice is carefully crafted by people at Spotify over many months.”

Angela has been at Spotify for eight years, six of which she has worked on Wrapped, helping shape it into one of the most anticipated brand moments on the calendar. Spotify said that Wrapped 2025, which launched last week, was its biggest launch to date, recording more than 200 million engaged users within its first 24 hours, compared with 62 hours to reach the same figure last year. According to the company, the experience was shared more than 500 million times across in-app sharing, screenshots and downloads, representing a 41% year-on-year increase.

Planning for Wrapped is a year-long process – Angela, who this year was the programme lead for Wrapped, steering the strategy, planning, and collaboration between a massive group of people within Spotify, is already beginning to think about next year’s campaign.

“We value it immensely and care deeply about protecting its authenticity, evolution and, above all, innovation we serve our users,” says Angela. “While Wrapped certainly is our touchstone marketing campaign of the year, we see it as a derivative of our Spotify brand that ties a bow on the year with our community.”

With that responsibility in mind, the brief for 2025 began with an evolution of Wrapped’s visual language. Design, Angela says, remains one of the event’s most critical components, with teams across Spotify working each year to build out its visual world.

For 2025, that meant taking a deliberately different direction, drawing on nostalgia and the tactile culture of mixtapes and cassette decoration. “We aimed to transform a year of listening into a bold, expressive visual mixtape that channels the raw energy of fandom in a way only Wrapped can,” she says.

That thinking also shaped the launch beyond the app. As part of the global campaign, Spotify activated close to 50 physical destinations around the world – each designed as a knowing nod for super-fans – intended to bring listeners together to celebrate the artists that defined their year.

Angela

Behind all of that sits a sprawling internal operation. Angela says hundreds of Spotify employees across almost every function touch Wrapped each year. “Our team is made up of incredibly skilled engineers, designers, creatives, product leads, data scientists, editors, producers and so many more,” she says.

Each new edition begins with a deep look back before any ideas move forward. “Every year we look at the success and improvements we can make from the year before. Our benchmark is always ourselves,” she explains. That process shapes the early brief, built from platform insights, cultural signals and user behaviour. “How can we make sure we prioritise our users and focus on what they want and have asked for, but also, how can we surprise them?”

As programme lead this year, Angela’s role sat at the centre of that process. “I get to work with so many experts in their fields internally to build a brief based on insights, audit what we’re seeing happening on our platform and off our platform globally, and brief in creative and product minds to have fun ideating what we could create,” she says. “It’s an honour to be at the helm and act as connective tissue between true geniuses in their craft.”

Angela says the underlying purpose of Wrapped has remained consistent, even as elements, like new in-app features, fresh top picks, or a redesigned look, evolve year to year. “The heart of Wrapped never changes,” she says. “Wrapped has always been about how users listened, what they can learn about themselves and the music – plus podcasts and audiobooks – that connects us across borders and time zones.”

For 2025, Spotify introduced close to a dozen new personalised stories, all designed to reflect how users listened throughout the year and to deepen their relationship with the artists and creators they follow.

One of Angela’s personal favourites is ‘Top Artist Sprint’, which turns a user’s top five artists into a race across the screen, with positions shifting based on listening behaviour over the year. “It helped me remember what I was doing when I was listening to Jungle or John Splithoff throughout the year,” she jokes.

For the first time, Spotify also introduced a multi-player experience with Wrapped Party, allowing users to compare their listening live with friends or family. “People are always looking at ways to connect,” she says, “and we think Wrapped Party does just that.”

With so much of Wrapped built on highly personal listening data, Angela says maintaining the right tone is critical. Rather than leaning into the scale of what Spotify can see, the focus is always on how that information is framed for the user. “Wrapped celebrates the unique trends and habits that defined how users listened throughout the year,” she says. “Every story represents and champions all types of listening, whether you’re a super-user or someone who turns to music during certain moments in your life.”

The aim, she explains, is not to overwhelm users with metrics, but to reflect their year back to them in ways that feel light, familiar and shareable. “What we work to do is simply show receipts from their year in fun and interesting ways,” she says. “The innate nature of learning about yourself is something we all naturally can subscribe to. I think we can strike this balance because we’re truly just looking to do exactly what you mentioned – bring some joy to our users.”

Asked why Wrapped has endured while so many ‘year in review’ formats have faded as one-off stunts, Angela again points to the people behind it. “Truly,” she says. “The energy, effort, and thought that goes into the magic of Wrapped is not a coincidence. It’s by design.”

For Spotify, she adds, Wrapped remains one of the few moments each year where the brand gets to visibly meet its audience on shared ground. “It’s the most exciting time for us because we get a moment to show our listeners and creators that we’re fans ourselves.”

And despite leading one of the most anticipated brand moments in culture, Anglea says her own Wrapped still manages to surprise her every year. “Always. That’s the best part of Wrapped,” she says.

“I’ve worked on it for the past six years and I’m always surprised by how John Mayer sneaks into my top five every year. I turn to him more than I think throughout the year. I’m proud of how much Cheryl Lynn, Marvin Gaye and ‘70s music I listen to which skews my listening age to 66.

“I’m also SHOCKED that the ‘Jurassic Park’ sound track is number five on my top five albums. But I mean, who doesn't love a good dinosaur jam from John Williams?”

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