It’s December 1 and you open up Instagram. What do you see but everyone you know proudly sharing their Spotify data from the past year. But what if you’re less than thrilled with the outcome of your top songs? What, if anything, are students doing to prepare for 2022?
HELEN BRADSHAW, REPORTER: At the beginning of each December, the world’s 381 million Spotify users wake up to a much-anticipated gift:
ANDREW YOUNG, STUDENT: ‘Oh my god, what day is it?’ Like I would instantly go to my calendar and see if it was truly, if I was dreaming or if it was truly Spotify Wrapped day.
BRADSHAW: That’s Andrew Young, and like millions of others, each year he gets a summary of his music listening history through Spotify Wrapped.
If you aren’t familiar with the tradition, every December Spotify presents its users with bright, shareable graphics summing up their music taste for the year and showing them just how unique their listening habits are.
And it’s become somewhat of a social media phenomenon. The graphics are easily shareable to Instagram stories, and boy are they shared.
YOUNG: I don’t have anything against Spotify Wrapped out. It’s just think it’s funny how one day everyone’s music is, is all over the interwebs. But I also think there are benefits to it, right? Like you, you might discover, again, like that mutual interest that maybe some people are looking for in terms of music.
But for Weinberg junior Kade Kelley, even though that sharing can be overwhelming, it also can be a moment of pride and symbolic self-completion of sorts.
KADE KELLEY, STUDENT: There’s this attachment of your, of your music taste to like your sense of style that I feel like people often do. And I know I started listening to a lot of certain artists because I thought I liked their music for one but B. I thought that listening to their music sort of like had a nice vibe to it. That sort of like resonated with my personality, your music taste is really put under a microscope.
BRADSHAW: But let’s say you happen to not be so proud of your music taste.
YOUNG: Well, I would hope to see more, a heavier selection from Luke Combs or Thomas Rhett, because that’s who I generally listen to those, those types of folks. There was a great deal of One Direction populating my Spotify Wrapped from 2021. And while I love me some One Direction, I do not remember spending a considerable amount of time listening to them in that particular year. But it is entirely possible that I was enjoying them a little bit more than I would care to admit.
BRADSHAW: Or for example, not speaking from personal experience or anything, but let’s say the Glee Cast was your top artist of the year and you aren’t ready to tell the world you’re a Gleek yet… or a Directioner. What can you do to avoid that situation for 2022?
The answer isn’t exactly straightforward, but Kelley has one tip: Get out all your so-called embarrassing music binges in the month before the new year.
KELLEY: in December, I had this freedom to listen to whatever I wanted, and knew that it wouldn’t show up on my Spotify Wrapped. I listened to Coconuts, whatever I wanted. If I remember correctly, lots and lots of Taylor Swift – was really enjoying the Red album. If not for that, for that grace period, Taylor Swift would definitely be my number one artist like this time next year. Also I just like listened to the radio a lot more. I don’t know if that was really affected by Wrapped but I think I was also in that same mindset of I can listen to whatever. I was sort of letting myself explore a lot of different genres.
BRADSHAW: According to Spotify, they stop using data for Wrapped a few weeks before it comes out, potentially leaving all of November out of the running, and certainly December.
YOUNG: I don’t know when I was listening to One Direction but I think I was in a, definitely was in like a classic rock phase in the fall and in the winter and that was heavily underrepresented in my Spotify Wrapped. So 100% – now that you bring that up yeah, I am actually getting a little, a little agitated as we’re talking about it because they missed out on that phase of my year.
BRADSHAW: And this trend is definitely shown in Spotify’s Wrapped data. According to Billboard, this method clearly privileges earlier releases. In fact, Olivia Rodrigo’s Driver’s License, the top song of the year, as well as Little Nas X’s Montero (Call Me By Your Name), the second most-streamed song, were both released before April, giving users plenty of time to rack up streams.
So as 2022’s Spotify Wrapped is a mere 10 months away, remember you really may only have nine of those months to show Spotify your true (or not-so-true) habits. Or, you can just be like Kelley and learn to embrace your taste.
KELLEY: I think it’s time To finally just say I’m a Coconuts fan. I don’t think I’ve ever said that out loud and I would like it to be on this little podcast show radio talkie thing that Coconuts is a great song. “Margaritatas” is literal lyrical genius.
BRADSHAW: For WNUR NEWS, I’m Helen Bradshaw.
