Annual Spotify Wrapped reveals listening habits

ABBY WILLIAMS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

As 2022 came to a close, Spotify users wrapped up their year with their annual collection of data and activity.

Spotify Wrapped allows users to see a compilation of their favorite artists, songs, and genres at the end of each year. The slideshow has a similar format to Instagram stories and informs users of what they listened to throughout the year.

16 PERSONALITIES

Some of the 16 listening personalities assigned by Spotify are “The Replayer,” “The Top Charter,” and “The Musicologist.”

TWITTER JOKES

Wrapped’s release spawned numerous jokes on Twitter, with users poking fun at their own listening habits.

Spotify is a favorite streaming service among students.

“Spotify is the main app I use to listen to music,” junior Ani Quartuccio said. “I just like the way it’s laid out, I also like Spotify Premium.” Quartuccio isn’t alone in preferring Spotify over any other music streaming services.

“I like Spotify a lot,” senior Alaina Wisswell said. “I use it because I listen to a lot of music and most of it is on Spotify. It’s very convenient to have it all in one place.”

Spotify Wrapped 2022 was released to users on Nov. 30, 2022.

“I look forward to it,” Wisswell said. “I like to see how much time I’ve spent on Spotify. I try to set a goal for each year of how many minutes I’ve listened, as well as trying to be in the top percent of listeners of my favorite artists.”

Spotify Wrapped changes slightly each year. The 2022 version was mostly the same as past ones, but included a new feature: a user’s “listening personality”. Similar to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator used to describe 16 different personality types, users were given one of 16 listening personalities based on what music they listened to throughout the year.

Wisswell’s listening personality, “The Adventurer,” has the acronym “ENVU,” standing for exploration, newness, variety, and uniqueness. People who got this listening personality are described as being “a seeker of sound. You venture out into the unknown, searching for fresher artists, deeper cuts, newer tracks - especially gems yet to be found.”

“I liked how the listening personalities were modeled after the 16 personality types,” Wisswell said. “I thought my description was pretty accurate, as I got the Adventurer. However, I didn’t exactly see the point of it. I guess it’s just there for people to share, but it doesn’t hold much meaning otherwise.”

Some students claim their Spotify Wrapped results seem inaccurate.

“I feel like it’s really inaccurate to what I listen to,” Quartuccio said. “It seems like it really only tracks the music you listen to at the beginning of the year, and not much at the end of the year. My results definitely were not accurate, there were some artists on mine that I didn’t really listen to as much.”

Some believe their Spotify Wrapped results could be skewed or numerous reasons.

“I think it may be inaccurate because people sometimes use other apps to listen to music along with Spotify,” Wisswell said. “Sometimes, Spotify just plays songs random songs and still registers that you listened to it even if you skip it right away.”

Spotify stops tracking what a user listens to after Oct. 31 of each year.

“I think they should track more of the year,” Quartuccio said. “I feel like it’d give us more accurate results, and I feel like it’d be cooler to see.”

Despite this, students still enjoy Spotify Wrapped. Due to its extreme success, other apps have tried creating something similar to Wrapped, but students believe nothing can beat Spotify.

“I’ve seen other apps doing something similar and it’s not very good,” Quartuccio said. “I think Spotify does it the best.”

Students are already thinking about the next Spotify Wrapped and are anticipating changes in their listening habits.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Wisswell said. “I want to compare my previous results to the new ones and see what about my music taste has changed.