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every single year December rolls around
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and you know what that means oh
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dude do you see your Spotify oh sweet
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Spotify wrapped is out wasn't a 38
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Spotify R is trash Spotify
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rap okay but how how did they manage to
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turn the most boring thing imaginable
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numbers and statistics into a global
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phenomenon not only that how do they
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manage to do it every single year making
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it work so well that every other company
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has copied it I looked under the curtain
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and now it all makes sense because
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Spotify rft is a master class in
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Psychology it's not about the music it's
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not even about the fear of missing out
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see there are three key psychological
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principles that make Spotify raft work
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and they are carefully engineered every
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single year but despite all this the
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first time Spotify did it it didn't work
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at all this is vizeri music released by
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Spotify in 2015 and at the first glance
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it looks like Spotify wrapped you could
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see a recap of the music you listen to
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how how many minutes which artist how
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many genres your top tracks on the
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surface it looks basically the same as
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Spotify wrapped it had a cool design all
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the data you're familiar with but it
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didn't work some people liked it some
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shared their stats in Spotify forums but
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that was it it was nowhere near where
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Spotify wrapped is today and that's
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because while it looks very similar it's
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missing two of the free things that make
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Spotify wrapped actually work but it did
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have the first one data so have you ever
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played ground Theft Auto I mean if you
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didn't I don't even know what you're
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doing here what well in Grand Theft Auto
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there's a section with all your
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statistics about the game and you can
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see how many kilometers you've traveled
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how much time you've played with each
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character how many people you've killed
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of course this is a staple in many games
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we are inherently drawn to data and
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statistics about ourselves or what we do
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this is why people track steps and their
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calories and if you're like me I bet you
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would like to have stats like in GTA for
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your actual real life and with VIs music
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Spotify crack the first piece of the
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puzzle see to this day Spotify is a
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master at using data not just for the
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sake of showing you numbers but using
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the first psychological principle that
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makes Spotify R work the Curiosity Gap
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these are the notification that Spotify
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starts to send every single year and
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they all lean on our n desire to seek
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out what's missing the missing
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information and it's not by chance that
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Spotify doesn't offer any statistics
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that you can see about your music
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throughout the year they know how
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valuable the osity Gap is so they
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purposely make you wait for WRA every
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single year to see the numbers this is
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the same psychological principle that
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Instagram uses when they send you this
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if you ask someone to create this
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notification the first thing they would
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do is write enrio mentioned you in their
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story but writing it this way creates a
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curiosity Gap essentially giving
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Instagram a free visit from you to the
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app to see who it is that tagged you in
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the story and this is also the same
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principle that I used in this very video
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Let's watch back for a second there are
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three key psychological principles that
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make Spotify raft work I used the
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Curiosity cap to let you know that there
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are fre psychological principles and if
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you arrived here well it kind of worked
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but still even with data your year music
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didn't really work because data by
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itself is not enough and that's when the
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next piece of the puzzle comes in this
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is YouTube Rewind for those of you that
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weren't old enough back in the day this
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was a phenomenon every single year
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YouTube created this super highly
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produced video
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with all the biggest creators on the
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platform with all the memes and the
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cultural reference of the year it was
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huge now YouTube Rewind didn't really
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show you data but it nailed the second
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pillar that makes Spotify rat work and
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that's storytelling sure I can tell you
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that you listen to I am an island boy
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for 957 minutes this year that's cool I
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guess but what if I tell you that with
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this you are in the top 0.02% of fans of
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the island boys I don't know if that's
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something to really brag about though I
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can tell you that you listen to X
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minutes of l r but what if I link it to
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a specific month of the year bringing
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back memories from that time where you
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were probably lonely and depressed I can
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tell you that you listen to these genres
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okay but instead I can create your genre
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sandwich at Spotify they are Masters in
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taking simple boring pieces of data like
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how many genres you listen to how many
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playlists you created and tell a story
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with your data like turning your
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listening statistics into an astrology
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Style game with 12 unique personalities
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like the roboticist if you always rely
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on the algorithm to listen to stuff the
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vampire if you listen to Dark Emo music
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while you write videos about Spotify R
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if you know these V don't even have any
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data in them but they tell you a story
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but let's go back to YouTube Rewind for
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a second because if you know YouTube
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Rewind you also know that it's not a
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thing anymore 2018 was the year that
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killed YouTube Rewind it was one of the
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most disliked video in the entire
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history of YouTube and that's because
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yeah it was cringe but it also got stale
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it was a same recipe year after year and
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this is where the second psychological
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principle that Spotify uses comes into
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play the anticipation effect see our
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brains feed on anticipation even now you
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are here always trying to anticipate
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what is going to be my
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next word and Spotify uses this every
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single year because the data I itself
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the numbers coming out of the analytics
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team in some room are always more or
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less the same sure maybe they can come
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out with a new metric but they're going
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to be always the same few numbers about
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your music and so they realize that they
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need to craft a different story and use
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storytelling in a different way every
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single year to stay relevant otherwise
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they know that it can be cool for a few
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years but they risk the same fate that
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YouTube Rewind had this is what makes
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you anticipate Spotify rep as an event
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it's not what is my data going to be
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this year but what is the story going to
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be this year in 2017 they introduced
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artist raft Spotify RS but for the
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artists themselves in 2020 they tried
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quizzes having you actively guess what
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the most listened to podcast and songs
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were in that year Spotify raps touched
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90 million users and Spotify downloads
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increased by 21% during the first week
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of December in 20122 they added
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personalized video messages from artists
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to their top fans adding connection to
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the audience in 2023 is the
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personalities based game that we saw
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before each year they build a new story
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so that each year like clockwork they
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managed to build anticipation so much so
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that every other company tried to copy
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this success of course Apple music
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jumped on the train with their Replay
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that was predictable but then we got
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peleton the bike Fitness company that
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copied wrapped with their own year recap
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for your workouts only thing is that
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many people were lazy they did like
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three workouts in the entire year and
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now p just slapped that in their face
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before Christmas the bank monzo did a
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similar campaign and you can imagine how
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excited people were to see all their
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expenses recapped again at the end of
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the year so we have data we have
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storytelling but there is one less piece
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to the Spotify wrapped and it's probably
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the most important but before we get to
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this how do I get out of here I'm in
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Tinder
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now oh nice oh now I get it I'm stuck
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inside mobin see I used use mobin for
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every single video I make because it's V
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place to find high quality screenshots
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of basically every app in existence you
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can just type fun and here's some fun UI
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inspiration or maybe I need some buttons
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and there we go maybe I want to talk
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about dark mode oh when you look at that
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sweet dark mode I've been using mobin
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for the last 6 months since I discovered
00:07:52
it and I wish I discovered it sooner
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because it literally saved my life to
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find content and screens to make these
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very videos if you're the designer mobin
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is a must but even if you're just
00:08:02
interested in Tech and design and you
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want to understand the latest trends you
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can find everything on mobin if you want
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to try mobin remember to use the link in
00:08:10
the description so they'll know I sent
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you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I
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do and now let's get back to the video
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because let me ask you this do you have
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that friend that's like yeah I listen to
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everything all the genres I'm such a
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music nerd and then you find out he only
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listen to the top 50 and his Niche and
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upand cominging artist is is Drake well
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this hides the third ingredient that
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makes Spotify WRA actually work the
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spotlight effect we tend to believe that
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we are more noticed more unique than we
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really are we want to feel special in a
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way Superior to others in the end we
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want to flex and Spotify knows this all
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too well it's no coincidence that they
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put the total number of minutes you
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listen to here as the main metric and do
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you see the resemblance it's a video
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game high score it creates the IDE that
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now this is a competition and you want
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to be better than your friends at it see
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I was listening to the band The 1975
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back in 2013 when they had like 50,000
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listeners and now that they went big for
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me it's a flex Taylor Swift fans are
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going to fight for the flex of being in
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that top
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0.01% of listeners and I bet you those
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that reach it will very much want to
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share it and this is the key the
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spotlight effect is what powers the
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third ingredient behind Spotify wrapped
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sharing the first version of this ear
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music looked like this basically a PDF
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slide not really sharable but today WRA
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has evolved into this Instagram stories
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format with a huge call to action to
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share on each individual page this is
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what allows it to spread organically
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every single year Spotify mastered these
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free but every year they need to keep
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their game up to stay relevant so while
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I was waiting for my Spotify wrapped
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like everyone else I got to work and
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Spotify here's a few ideas for free
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you're welcome we all have multiple
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artists we like and if you're like me
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you would freak out if they collaborated
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together on a song so after your top
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artist they can use image generation for
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cover art and llms for lyrics and
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imagine what a featuring between your
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top artist would look like that amazing
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new song by Sabrina Carpenter and
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Cannibal Corpse or that other one by
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Skrillex and Bob Dylan or introducing
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music Pals where Spotify finds you the
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user that most resembles your music
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taste and if they accept you can get in
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touch oh and even if you have a ton of
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Music in common you're likely to have
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very similar taste so here's a playlist
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with the top songs that the other person
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have but you don't so you can discover
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new stuff but wait a second have you
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noticed it I'm talking about the design
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of Spotify wrapped it's kind of bad
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don't get me wrong they do this on
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purpose but this bad messy aesthetic is
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not just taking over Spotify rra but
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everything the design of what we use
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what we watch how we speak how we write
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and as it turns out there's a very
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precise reason why and you can learn all
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about it in this video right here I'm
00:11:06
enrio and I'll see you in the next one
