It surprised lots of my classmates and friends recently when Spotify released its annual Spotify Wrapped to users. Count me among those who were surprised.
In between classes, I walked up to a group of friends who were all sharing what their Wrapped looked like this year, excited and surprised that it had been released.
While I thought Wrapped wouldn’t be released until later in the year, I knew immediately what they were talking about and sharing.
Spotify Wrapped is an annual tradition where Spotify gives listeners a look at what their top 5 genres, artists, and songs they listened to this year, while also giving users their “stats.”
Your “stats” are how many hours you listened this year, and how much time you listen to music and podcasts compared to other listeners on spotify, including other listeners to your top artist.
Most Spotify listeners use Wrapped as an opportunity to share their music tastes and artists they love with their friends by posting them across multiple social media platforms.
Over 574 million people use Spotify as their main music and podcast streaming platform, creating some friendly competition among users’ “stats” for their favorite artist(s).
I was the top 0.1% listener to my top artist, meaning I listened to their music 99% more than anyone else.
Amelia Rogers (‘27), while commenting on her top 5, said, “I didn’t really care about the rest of my top 5, I was just glad that Taylor Swift was my number one.”
Friends from other high schools had similar reactions.
A high school student from Virginia, Sofie V. (‘26) found it funny that her top “song” was a podcast about a biology unit.
“I was struggling, so I went to Spotify,” she said with a laugh.
AK Pharr (‘27), a die-hard Taylor Swift fan, was overjoyed to find all of her top songs were by Taylor, and to be in the top 0.02% of listeners.
“I have her posters up on my wall, of course I was happy to be a top fan. There are millions of fans of hers, so I was really happy about it,” she said, smiling.
Some were disappointed, and weren’t happy with their top songs, artists and other stats.
“I feel like it didn’t really reflect me as a listener.” said Ava Jordan (‘24). “Parts of it were accurate, my top song was right, but I don’t feel like my top artist was right.”
People go through phases of what different kinds of music they like just like a favorite color or food. I can relate to Ava as someone who explores different kinds of music, and mainly listens to playlists, not particular songs or artists.
My top 5 are usually just a game of chance, not necessarily my taste. Many people try to counteract this by making playlists tailored to their favorite songs and artists.
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out when to listen to these playlists because you never really know when your Wrapped will stop recording your listening data. Even so, this usually just motivates people to listen more year-round so they can be proud of their Wrapped, even if they choose not to share it on social media.
Overall, high schoolers love this yearly tradition and it is always exciting to see what your Wrapped will be like year to year.
Now we’re back to waiting for our Wrapped 2024.
