As 2022 came to a close, music streaming services – Spotify, in particular – took advantage of the app’s recorded data and algorithms from users. From this, the apps provided users with a summary of their activity on the app throughout the entire year. For Spotify subscribers, this service is called Spotify Wrapped. 

Spotify describes Spotify Wrapped to be about “celebrating the endless ways that millions of creators and fans connect through audio each and every day.” 

Spotify Wrapped provides users with a few different statistics, including the most listened-to genres, songs, artists, total amount of minutes listened, and even their top 100 most listened-to songs. More recently, though, the app released even more features to Spotify Wrapped, including “listening personality” and “audio day,” which showcase the specific moods and descriptors of a user’s music taste throughout different times of the day. 

In addition to personalized data for each individual user, Spotify also released overall data of the most listened to artists, albums, and songs globally. The top five most streamed artists of 2022 were Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, and BTS. Additionally, the top five most streamed songs globally were “As It Was” by Harry Styles, “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals, “Stay” by the Kid LAROI feat. Justin Bieber, “Me Porto Bonito” by Bad Bunny, and “Tití Me Preguntó” by Bad Bunny. Fans were also shocked to learn that the most listened to albums of 2022 were Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny, Harry’s House by Harry Styles, Sour by Olivia Rodrigo, = by Ed Sheeran, and Planet Her by Doja Cat. 

While Spotify Wrapped provided arguably the most entertaining end-of-year listening summary, other apps have recently done similarly shared personalized music data. Apple Music, for instance, released the Replay experience, just three years after Spotify Wrapped was introduced. Apple Music’s Replay experience was even named a “direct competitor to Wrapped.” 

It’s clear that Apple Music’s Replay experience isn’t as in-depth as Spotify Wrapped, but it has definitely gained popularity over the years. With Apple Music’s 80 million yearly listeners, it’s clear that the idea of personalized music summaries have taken music streaming platforms to a new level. 

Additionally, YouTube Music released their Music Recap in November 2022. Similar to the other two streaming platforms, YouTube music creates custom playlists based on recorded data from users most listened to songs, albums, and artists. The Music Recap also includes the “music personality” feature, as well as personalized graphics to share with others. 

While these streaming platforms have grown increasingly popular over the past few years, Spotify has remained the number one streaming platform in the world with 456 million monthly users, 195 million of which are premium subscribers. The main aspect of the app that stands out to users is its simplicity. 

Olympic Heights sophomore Olivia Alekhnovich explains, “I absolutely love Spotify because it is so easy to use and find artists based on what you listened to most.” There are also many other features that make Spotify the most unique streaming platform. “I definitely prefer Spotify over any other streaming service because there are a lot of features that only Spotify has, like finding unreleased music and a huge selection of podcasts,” Alekhnovich goes on to explain.

Since music is such a big part of everyday life, many people look forward to reflecting on their listening history from Spotify Wrapped. OH sophomore Gaby Pujols comments, “It’s cool, because it really shows your style in music and how it might have changed throughout the year.” 

Now that 2023 has officially commenced, Spotify has already begun recording algorithms to create a compilation of data summarizing users’ activity on the app throughout the year.