Yes, I Do Want To See Your Spotify Wrapped, Actually

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

No, not Christmas. Spotify Wrapped, obviously.

A day of wonder, of magic, of getting to see that every single person you know’s music tastes are far more basic than they’d lead you to believe.

Yes, I know you’re a fan of that shoe gaze-y band who can’t even sell out Whelan’s Upstairs, but one of your top artists is Sabrina Carpenter. And that’s okay.

Spotify Wrapped has always been a special day for me. I love a list, and more importantly, I love a gimmick.

And Spotify Wrapped is the biggest gimmick going.

 

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It’s such a basic concept, it’s consistent free advertising for Spotify, it’s proof that the corporate machine will do anything to stay relevant. And I eat it up every year.

The marketing campaign (because let’s be honest, that’s what it is), officially began in 2016.

The previous year, the app showcased users’ Year in Music, which documented their most listened to songs, but it wasn’t until 2019 that Wrapped became what it is today – a full music experience, built into the Spotify app, that can be easily shared to Instagram.

And so begins a solid 24 hours (at least) of people sharing their Wrapped to social media, saturating their Stories with weird genres and top pods, rendering Instagram basically unusable for the day.

Some complain about these posts. They dub them self-absorbed and irritating to tap through. They refuse to engage in the data driven commercial ploy.

But not me. I love it.

 

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I love the excitement, I love the information, I love the forced sense of community as I discover that, yes, Chappell Roan was in your top artists too. What are the chances?

There’s just something about thinking you know a person and then seeing that they listened to a lot of Scouting For Girls this year. That they were, in fact, in their top 0.05% of listeners. That says a lot about a person.

I love seeing that ‘White Noise Three Hours’ is your top song. I adore parents whose entire year is dominated by kids songs.

I want to know why people redact certain tracks before posting them online. Who hurt you? And more importantly, what cancelled artist were you listening to?

Spotify Wrapped is like a perfect little present to myself, and I’m only delighted to receive it every year.