Every December, the popular music app Spotify reveals users’ top artists, songs, genres, and more of the past year. This trend started in 2016, but has since become one of the most looked forward to events in music. A slideshow of 22 slides showing users’ listening habits is presented with colorful graphics and jokes. There are options to share one’s Spotify Wrapped on social media apps, such as Instagram. Over the months of January to October, Spotify tracks users’ most listened to songs and artists. It’s believed that November and December aren’t counted because of the mass listening to only holiday music, which would affect the data, but Spotify has yet to confirm this. Spotify also tracks how many minutes users listen to music, and to each genre. It has become a tradition to share and compare “minutes” with friends and family to see who has the most time listened. The average number of minutes listened is 3,695, which is over two and a half straight days–a lot of listening!
There were many artists listened to this year, but one came out on top. Taylor Swift was the most popular artist of 2023, with 26.1 billion streams. She beat Bad Bunny, who had won for the three previous years. The top genres of music in 2023 were pop, electronic dance, and rap. This is similar to other years, as pop is usually the top genre. Many songs were popular this year, especially due to music being used in social media more. For example, songs such as “Paint The Town Red” by Doja Cat went viral on TikTok, and made it into the top songs worldwide. Other top songs include “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, and “As It Was” by Harry Styles. Some top albums are Un Verano Sin Ti’ by Bad Bunny, One Thing at a Time by Morgan Wallen, and SOS by SZA.
At Hastings High School, listening was mainly aligned with the global top artists. Many people’s top artists included Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Zach Bryan, and Travis Scott. When asked if their top songs were an accurate reflection of their listening preferences, most people said yes. However, some had shared accounts with parents or siblings, which impacted their listening. Another popular opinion was that Spotify was letting users’ wrapped lists be impacted. People felt that artists who had brand deals or partnerships with Spotify appeared in more Wrapped slideshows than was accurate. However, when asked if Spotify Wrapped is a good or bad thing, everyone said it is a positive. Many said that it’s fun to see how your listening has changed, and to reflect what you listened to at the start of the year. All in all, Spotify Wrapped is a wholesome reminder of your music choices of 2023.
