Today is a momentous yet divisive day for music listeners. The release of Spotify Wrapped has rekindled the age-old debate of Apple Music versus Spotify listeners. It also permits people to brag about their music tastes and habits.
Toward the end of each year, Spotify releases a compilation of user-specific data about their activity on the platform over the past year. It provides information about users’ favorite genres of music and their top five artists.
Spotify Wrapped also compiles a playlist of users’ 100 favorite songs of the year, allowing listeners to reflect back before the year ends.
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Users also learn their top song of the year. It is okay if this song is embarrassing or boring, considering many of us listen to sleep sounds throughout the night, or ambient music when we study. However, the 50 times you listened to “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac proves that you were going through it.
Listeners can find out their top five artists of the year as well as the number of artists listened to before they find out their number one artist. Spotify is clever in using their algorithm that tracks and suggests music to provide nostalgia to people. Before Wrapped was released, Instafest surged across social media. Instafest is a music festival graphic that displays most-played artists on Spotify as though they are the lineup spanned across three personalized days.
This year’s Wrapped also includes the different vibes listeners indulged in during the morning, afternoon and evening, as well as their “listening personality,” which is comparable to the “Audio Aura” from the previous year. These additional algorithmic deep dives allow Spotify to continue to one-up the competition — Apple Music.
Apple Music has tried to mimic the same sort of thing with its own version called “Replay,” which debuted in 2019. They relaunched this year with a fresh new look that mirrors Spotify — with custom playlists and a dedicated website.
University of Wisconsin student and longtime Apple Music user Sally Blodgett went so far as to state how excluded she feels every year, yet the fear of change prohibits her from switching platforms. However, it’s not too late to make the change to get your Spotify Wrapped just in time for 2023!
Wrapped was initially launched in 2015 when it was called “Year in Music,” which listed individuals’ biggest songs of the year and top 100 songs. While popular, Spotify revamped in 2017 with the foundations of the now-familiar Wrapped identity put into place, including personalized listening stats, interactivity and, of course, Instagram-ability.
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And remember, folks, you don’t have to share your Spotify Wrapped on your Instagram or Snapchat story.
