Each year, at the end of November, Spotify releases “Spotify Wrapped,” a celebration and compilation of what each user listened to the most that year. The company has done this every year since 2016, which has been a great marketing technique for them because so many users post their favorite aspects of their Wrapped on their personal social media accounts, giving Spotify free publicity. This year, once again, Spotify users were very excited to see what their most listened-to songs were, who their top artists were, and even which podcasts they listened to the most.
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Opening your Spotify app on the Spotify Wrapped release date each year “feels like Christmas,” said Riley Tobon, a junior at Academy. “I really enjoy being able to learn more about my music taste by seeing what I listened to the most in the past year,” said Tobon ‘23. Users are greeted by a brightly lit screen when they open the app on the Wrapped release date each year, showing them that their annual statistical music analysis has arrived. They can click through the presentation, which shows various music habits throughout the year. This includes how many genres they listened to throughout the year, where most people live that have the same music taste as them, what their most-listened-to songs of the year were, how many total minutes of music they listened to, and many other statistics.
What seemed to spark the most interest in Spotify users, specifically the ones at Academy, was being able to view their top artist of the year and seeing what percentage of top listeners they fell into for that artist. Devin Murphy (’24), an avid country fan, said, “I was in the top 0.5% of Morgan Wallen’s listeners, which didn’t really surprise me because I am such a big fan of his”. Other students, such as Lucy Morey, were more shocked at some of the statistics that Spotify provided to them at the end of the year. “I did not expect the song Low Life by Future and The Weeknd to be my top song of the year, but I do really like that song,” said Morey (‘24). There is something exciting about learning more about a personal summarized music taste at the end of the year and being able to share it with those near.
Overall, this time of the year can be very stressful for many reasons, specifically for students and staff at AHN. It is essential to find different ways to destress and calm down, and a great way to do this is by listening to your favorite music and/or podcasts. Spotify Wrapped encourages individuals to continue to find new music and listen to their past favorites.
