What Your Spotify Wrapped Says About You
Because numbers mean nothing without context!
Extremely online people everywhere woke up yesterday to see Spotify — the streaming platform that for more than a decade has determined the way we listen, share and discover music — had released its annual report of our listening habits. Its feature is called Wrapped, which is funny considering it’s not even December yet. (It’d be funnier if I hadn’t already started sharing my own year-end lists.)
This year’s update has some new bells and whistles: A landing page gives you access to your year-end slideshow, a playlist with your most listened-to songs, and an AI-generated mix. There is now a tab that shows you if these artists are coming to play in your city, and another that lets you shop for their merch and physical copies — as long as they’re selling it on Spotify.
You may wonder, after glancing at your own playlist and everybody else’s, what all those hours of carefully and algorithmically determined listening say about you. Here are six ways to interpret your Spotify Wrapped results.
You are basic
You listened to the biggest stars on the planet and didn’t venture out much further. Drake, Taylor Swift, SZA, Bad Bunny: You love the hits, and that’s cool. After all, there are 8 billion people on the planet. The chances you’d be one of the basic ones were pretty high.
You have an obsession
Whether you logged an obscene amount of hours or listened to only one or two artists all year, you’re a “put all eggs into one basket” type of person. It’s OK. This level of fandom and consumption is enticed by the music industry; the chase for streaming records leads artists to flood platforms with bloated albums, one-off releases and remixes. As such, you are now a satellite orbiting your beloved rock.
You haven’t listened to new music since college
Your journey of musical discovery was short but bountiful. The songs and artists you loved during your most formative years are still doing it for you today. This is also perfectly fine. There’s some incredible new music out there, though. Have you heard of Wednesday?!
Your kid stole your phone
Baby Shark. Wheels On The Bus. I’m A Little Teapot. I don’t know, whatever kids are into these days. I don’t have kids!
If your Spotify algorithm is mangled beyond repair, it is clear your kid stole your phone.
You want to buy music but Spotify has completely devalued your favorite artists (and the vinyl market these days is ludicrous)
Your music taste is broad and refined. You have songs from critically acclaimed artists big and small on your playlist. Look— they’re thanking you!
Click on the “Your Artist Messages” tab of Wrapped and you’ll open up a reel of videos from artists on your most-played list. Mine had videos from Kelela, Kali Uchis and one of the guys in Mount Kimbie, thanking me for being a fan. One was filmed inside a parked car — just another part of the job now.
In reality, I only bought music from one of these artists this year: Kelela. (It was a download of Raven on Bandcamp.) Though I have their other records, I didn’t do anything as a streamer to merit any gratitude from Mount Kimbie. Neither did Spotify, which breaks payments down to fractions of pennies and will soon break them down even more for artists with smaller followings.
Look for those acts on your playlist. Are you supporting them in any other way outside of streaming? If we choose to share the promotional content given to us by Spotify, we should at least take time to ponder this question.
It’s not easy to buy music these days. Major label artists rarely offer downloads anymore, setting a precedent that impacts artists who prefer to make money from their records. The vinyl market continues to grow, but is oversaturated with big-label fare and reissues. The ensuing bottleneck has ramped up prices for new records and kept many artists from pressing their music at all. Spreading word of your favorites on social media is helpful, but as one of my favorite Denver artists, Austen Carroll, sings, bands can’t get by on free drugs and compliments. Copping a concert ticket, T-shirt or record goes a lot further. (Other platforms, like Apple Music and Tidal, also pay better.)
Streaming services (including those for films and TV) seem unwilling to pay artists their fair share of their own work. Consumers could help tip the scales. It would mean acknowledging that the creative control and wellbeing of artists are more important than the ease of use and cost of Spotify. As I’m reminded every year when Wrapped comes out, however, most listeners are still not convinced.
I’m a basic b!!
YES