How Spotify’s Disco Ball Logo Became a Viral Branding Moment

The Sweden-born audio-video streaming platform Spotify will lay to rest the infamous disco ball-esque iteration of its green logo.

The green disco ball logo was rolled out earlier in May to celebrate the streamer’s 20th anniversary.

Also marking the occasion was the limited-time feature, “Spotify 20: Your Year of the Year(s),” an immersive experience in which users can look back on their entire listening history on Spotify. The new feature—with its detailed analysis and the nostalgia that comes with scrolling through years of listening to remixes and singles—did not get as much attention as the anniversary logo.

Netizens chimed in with their negative reviews when the news spread online.

“That ain’t it, go back,” a user said about the logo redesign on X.

Some people defended the new logo, with a few suggesting on social media that users who like the disco ball version keep it as the Spotify app icon on their phone.

Spotify finally made its thoughts known by commenting on an X account reporting on the logo change with this short message:

“Alright, we know glitter is not for everyone. Our temp glow up ends soon. Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon returns next week.”

Tech brands have become “so obsessed” with being recognizable they forget to be memorable, said Andrew Tindall, an advertising industry expert and chief growth officer at System1 Group, a market research and brand strategy consultancy headquartered in London.

“Spotify’s disco ball is the opposite instinct,” he said in a May 18 post in The Drum. “It says the brand can move, dress up, join the occasion, put on a show and make you feel something.”

In a world where brands are vying for their place in the digital sun by chasing TikTok fads and posting videos as if they were going out of style, Spotify managed to cut through the competition with a mirrorball.

During the height of the branding discourse, several brands like Notion and KitKat spoofed the Spotify debacle by disco-fying their own logos. Netizens also made unofficial mock-ups of other company logos like Claude and Duolingo, which they then posted online.