Spotify Wrapped is created by the music streaming app Spotify. It’s a review of all of the music that you’ve listened to throughout the year, and it keeps track of everything from January 1 through November 15 of every year.
Previously, Spotify would only track your listening habits until Halloween. This year, however, they added 15 extra days to the count. It includes your top five songs and artists, how many minutes you listened, and the main genres and subgenres you’ve enjoyed throughout the year.
It first began in 2015, and was originally called “Year in Music” before changing to Wrapped in 2016. Since then, it has become a global phenomenon of both excitement and embarrassment.
Many users of Spotify look forward to this music roundup, and some even try to control the music they listen to so their Wrapped will look more professional.
This year, Spotify decided to lay off some of their employees, the ones that usually work on Wrapped. Due to this, the majority of Spotify Wrapped was made with none other than artificial intelligence.
Many people are mad about this, as Spotify Wrapped is one of their favorite parts of the listening experience.
“It doesn’t feel as personal as it usually does,” sophomore Xia Rockefeller said. “They’re missing some of the features from the previous years that I’ve always loved to see.”
Some of the features that Wrapped is missing this year include the top album, top listening month for your favorite artists, and your star sign according to the songs you listen to.
Anyway, let’s be done with the negatives. Let’s focus on all of the music that some of my closest friends have listened to this year.
Rockefeller’s top song this year was “Fat Funny Friend” by Maddie Zahm, and her top artist was Melanie Martinez. She was surprised at both of these, as she didn’t think she listened to either of them that many times.
She listened for 26,155 minutes this year, and wishes that Spotify would add a feature that separated the minutes she listened to podcasts from songs, just so she could see the difference.
I would say that her Wrapped reflects who she is, honestly. I wouldn’t expect anything else. I rate it an 8/10.
Meanwhile, sophomore Mack Marcott’s top song was “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant, and her top artist was Saint Motel.
Marcott listened for 14,990 minutes and says that she wishes it wasn’t done with artificial intelligence, since it seemed to be lacking in content this year.
I give this one a 9/10 because we have similar music tastes, but I’m taking a point off because 5,000 of her 14,990 minutes were dedicated to Saint Motel.
For me, my top artist was Lemon Demon and my top song was “Another Believer” by Rufus Wainwright. I’m not entirely surprised about my top artist, as Lemon Demon has been my top for four years straight. I’m also not surprised at my top song, even though I only started listening to it on September 3 and listened to it 331 times in less than two months.
This year, I listened to music for 119,714 minutes, and I was in the top one percent of listeners worldwide.
I rate my Wrapped an 8.5/10, purely for the fact that I am genuinely concerned about how I managed to listen to 83 days of music this year.
Next year, I hope Spotify will listen to the complaints that people have and make it better than it was this year. Wrapped was lacking this year, more than it has in past years. We can only hope that next year it will be better.
