by Jessica Cline
Staff Writer
Every year around the beginning of December, Spotify, one of the biggest music streaming services in the world, releases a music recap. Spotify records users' listening history from the beginning of January all the way to the end of October. The company then uses all of that data to create the infamous, Spotify Wrapped. Miss Schott, a Bradley choir teacher describes it as, “a summary of everything you have listened to.” Many users make sure they are careful about what music they play, knowing that it can affect their Spotify Wrapped.
Users look forward to Spotify Wrapped because of the many different features it comes with. When clicking on the big, eye-catching, colorful button of Spotify Wrapped, you are faced with an elaborate animated video/presentation to look through. In a very personal and exciting way, Spotify elaborates on the users five top songs, five top artists, new genres of music they played and how many total minutes the user spent listening to music.
What makes Spotify Wrapped more interesting is each year it never has a specific release date. Many users, especially Bradley students are eager for their annual Spotify Wrapped. Hanan Hussein (12) expresses the joy she has each year, “I think of Spotify Wrapped Day as like a whole national holiday.” Spotify Wrapped was the biggest conversation that was brought up through its release during school hours. It is always a big surprise when it is finally here and all of the users hope they are pleased with their results.
Spotify Wrapped is not like any other because of their interactive features. Most users love making it a competition and being able to see “who is the biggest fan.” Under a user's top song, it is listed what top percentage the user was in. That statement sparks conversation with peers to share each other’s Spotify Wrapped. While the music enthusiasts review their Spotify wrapped, most like to wonder how accurate they think theirs is to their actual music taste and their favorite artists. Bradley Senior, Ashley Hernandez expresses her shock of how impressive Spotify wrapped can be, “Overall I think my Spotify wrapped is pretty much accurate. Spotify listed my top 5 artists as Drake, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Brent Faiyaz, and J. Cole. Personally, what I thought my list was going to be is The Weeknd, Drake, Aaron May, J. Cole and Bad Bunny.” Overall Spotify knows Ashley pretty well and what she listens to daily.
For this year's Spotify wrapped, a new feature was added that a lot of fans love. The feature included different words that describe their music taste. Familiarity vs Exploration, Loyalty vs Variety, Timelessness vs Newness and Commonality vs Uniqueness make up the four metrics of a user's “listening personality.” Lindsey Cruz (10), a big Spotify fan likes the new feature, they go onto express, “i think it’s unique that they added the new future and it definitely gives more insight to the listener about how their music taste is perceived.” Let’s all hope that Spotify keeps this new feature a regular thing now.
A poll was asked to 42 Bradley Students who were pleased with their 2022 Spotify Wrapped results. 74% of those students were happy and excited to share their Spotify wrapped on social media platforms. While on the other hand, 28% of students were embarrassed of their Spotify Wrapped. Skylar Zakrzewski (12) was one of those people who were not pleased to see the annual notification of Spotify Wrapped. She goes on to explain, “I went through a bad phase of music and now my top five songs are very disappointing and don’t represent me well.” Many Spotify lovers agreed with what she had to say. There’s always next year to have an outstanding Spotify Wrapped 2023.