Spotify: Wrapping it Up

By Tibni Valle

Every year, as November comes to an end, Spotify users worry about what their Spotify Wrapped will look like. That embarrassing song they had on repeat for three days, or continuous listening of the Barbie soundtrack haunts music listeners’ annual recaps. While it’s the opportunity to show off how unique or superior your music taste is compared to everyone else, Spotify Wrapped also gives people a reality check on how embarrassing, depressing, or strange their music taste is. 

The idea for a yearly recap of users' music history began in 2015 with Spotify’s “Year in Recap” playlists, which combines users’ top 100 songs into one playlist. In 2016, the music platform launched its first Spotify Wrapped which showcased viewers’ top 5 artists, songs, and genres. Since then, the company has built popularity for Spotify Wrapped by including various new creative components and 2023 was no exception. This year's additions include Sound Town, which matches users to a city with similar listening data and shared top artists, peaked listening for top artists by month, artist messages, Me in 2023, and new formatting for top 5 genres.

The addition, Me in 2023, exhibits Spotify's inclusion of Gen-Z trends to further popularize Wrapped. It adopts a tarot card style format to characterize users by one of 12 streaming habits. “Vampire” characterizes users' dark and emotional taste, while listeners of light, upbeat music are deemed luminaries. “Cyclops” describes users' loyalty to one genre, in contrast with “Mastermind” which is given to those who explore a variety. “Alchemist” applauds users' creation of their own playlists, similar to the collector card, which identifies a user’s affinity to their own playlists. People who jump from one artist to the next receive the shapeshifter card, listeners who have a habit of skipping get the hunter card, and people who listen to whatever the algorithm suggests get the “Roboticist.” “Fanatic” represents fans loyal to one artist, “Hypnotist” describes those who listen to albums completely, and “Time Traveler” sympathizes with a user's consistent taste and listening. 

Creating new additions keeps the tradition fun, even for users who don't see many changes in their recaps, like Noe Calderon. 

“It was a lot like my last year one because I keep the same playlist but I just add songs to it…but I still enjoy the fact it exists,” he said. 

The new designs received recognition from multiple users which was seen by the astounding amount of Wrapped social media story posts. 

“It's not basic,” noted Ruth Valle, a BGHS alumni and my cousin who was interviewed while grubbing on some wings. 

She continued saying, “It's very interesting, I like how it tells you when you listened to certain artists,” talking about the addition of peak listening for a user's top artists. 

“It kinda tells you how you were feeling or what your mood was,” she finalized. 

The inclusion of artist video messages came as a shock to many, including Noe who admitted, “the video was really cool…I wasn't expecting it, but definitely enjoyed the feature.”

Another user, Amram Macias, agreed, stating, “it's pretty cool receiving a video from a famous artist, especially your favorite artists.”

Spotify Wrapped, remarkably, pays tribute to deceased artists by pointing out their surviving relevance in many users' music recaps. 

When asked about any surprising factors of his Spotify Wrapped results, Noe replied, “the fact that Juice WRLD still showed on my list, and XXXTentacion.” 

Macias also mentioned Juice WRLD’s appearance in his Wrapped. 

Another of Wrapped’s notable attributes is its ability to pick up on and reveal qualities about a user that they were not even aware of. 

“I'm in my rebellious phase,” joked Ruth after noticing her lack of religious music; a noticeable difference from last year. 

Elizabeth Favela, both an Apple Music and Spotify user, exclaimed, “Me volvi belica,” referring to her sudden inclination and interest with Corridos Belicos, also known as Corridos Tumbados, a subgenre of Regional Mexican music. 

Wrapped’s ability to still evoke an eager response from listeners contributes to its extreme popularity. In 2017, Spotify reported that 30 million users viewed their Wrapped. Only four years later, the number increased to a striking 120 million users and has not stopped growing. In 2022, over 156 million people accessed the feature. 

The platform’s success has unsurprisingly inspired a series of copycats. Spotify's main rival, Apple Music, launched its Replay feature in 2019. In 2022, the competitor even sought to cater to social media by creating postable designs. Other music platforms, like YouTube Music and Tidal, followed suit in 2020 and 2021. YouTube even attempted to create their own unique take on the trend by releasing quarterly seasonal recaps in 2022. 

The Wrapped trend isn't limited to just music platforms. The entertainment industry has also hopped on the trend, with companies like Reddit, Twitch, Nintendo Switch, and Hulu releasing yearly recaps. Apps like The Washington Post and Duolingo have even found ways to implement the idea. In 2019, Duolingo attested an increase in downloads following the release of their own version of Wrapped, serving as another instance of an innovative idea being replicated to increase profit for other companies. 

Now that Spotify Wrapped has been released, users can listen to music in December without having to worry about the fact that it will be recorded, at least before the system starts back up in January. In other words, you can listen to all the Christmas music that you'd like, without having to see Mariah Carey as your top artist.