It’s my favorite time of year: the Spotify Wrapped season. There’s nothing more enjoyable than staying inside all day, looking through the social media posts of my friends all sharing their music tastes; I think sharing the music you listen to is not only vulnerable but also very telling of your personality. Listening to music is a big part of my life, and it’s quite fun for me to look back on my year of listening and see what’s changed about me, too.
Minutes Listened
Prediction: 107k minutes
Actual: 105k minutes
I nailed this. I remember making my prediction and thinking that since I listen to music basically everywhere and anywhere, over 100k minutes of listening was fitting for me. That being said, I’ve started to realize how much 105k minutes truly is. That is 1,750 hours of straight listening, which equates to 72.9 days. One-fifth of my entire year has been spent listening to music… and that’s slightly embarrassing. I’m thinking I need to cut it down next year, maybe try to do an activity without music in the background (as I’m writing this while listening to Spotify). It’ll be a New Year’s resolution.
Most Listened-To Song
Prediction: “3DB” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
Actual: “3DB” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
I am a chronic ‘find a song I like and then listen to only that song on repeat’ kind of person. A lot of my music taste wraps around a few songs until I find a few new songs, and so on. Because of this habit, my most-listened to song always has an absurdly high count.
I knew that “3DB” was going to be my most listened to song since I basically wrote a novel to that one song over the summer, but even I was not expecting to have listened to it 564 times. When doing the math, that’s 2,096 minutes of my life just listening to this one song… which is 1.45 DAYS. Since I listen to a lot of songs on repeat this way, I’m very curious to know the count of my other top songs.
Top 5 Listened-To Songs
Prediction:
- “3DB” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- “Monsoon” by Hippo Campus
- “Love Like Ghosts” by Lord Huron
- “Aimless – Demo” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- “Feel Your Pain” by SYML
Actual:
- “3DB” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- “Monsoon” by Hippo Campus
- “Aimless – Demo” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- “Love Like Ghosts” by Lord Huron
- “Blade by Blade” by Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
My top songs are always melancholy and sad usually, since those are the easiest songs to turn on and ‘vibe to’ as I’m doing something else. I have a pretty good hunch on the songs that I listen to often, since I’m also listening to the Spotify curated “On Repeat” playlist that plays songs I’ve repeated, hence deepening the cycle.
I was a little surprised that three songs from Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners were on there, since that’s the biggest dominance of an artist I’ve ever had on my Top 5 Songs. Though I knew “3DB” was on top, I kind of hoped that “Monsoon” would take the top spot since that song means so much to me. Guess second place will have to do.
Top 5 Listened-To Artists
Prediction:
- Taylor Swift
- Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- SYML
- Mt. Joy
- Gracie Abrams
Actual:
- Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners
- Gracie Abrams
- Mt. Joy
- Metro Boomin
- Noah Kahan
This was the biggest surprise of Spotify Wrapped history: my number one prediction for listened-to artist wasn’t even in my Top 5. I audibly gasped as we went through the results that day and I saw that Taylor Swift was nowhere to be found, and I later learned that she was 7th on my most listened-to artists list. It was the end of an era, and I didn’t even know it.
Other than the lack of Taylor Swift, there were also some more surprises. SYML was completely shut out this year, even though he’s been on my list for the past couple years (he was 6th this year). Gracie Abrams made more of a climb than I thought, and Metro Boomin making the fourth spot had me laughing (he’s the only artist I listen to while rock climbing, I must’ve done a lot of climbing this past year). I also hadn’t started listening to Noah Kahan until late summer, so I was surprised that he was there too. While all of this was unexpected, none of it was unwelcome. I feel like these artists describe me pretty well.
Listening Location and Persona
Every year, Spotify comes out with new features for the Spotify Wrapped. This year they had Listening Location, which gave you a city that closely aligned you to the music you listen to, along with a Persona, something that best describes your music personality.
My listening location was San Luis Obispo, California, which I had to immediately look up to see where it was. Overall I liked the idea of giving everyone a location, but it felt like it wasn’t super personalized. I know a lot of people who got San Luis Obispo, Burlington, Fort Collins, Tempe, etc. that all listen to relatively different music. I would’ve loved to see the science behind how they choose locations and assign listeners to them; I think I would’ve liked the idea more.
My listening persona was Time Traveler, which was given to someone who listens to songs on repeat. I’m not sure how many options they had for different personas, but I will say that Spotify could not have been more accurate with this one.
Conclusions
I thought that this was, in all, a very successful Spotify Wrapped for me. There were no embarrassing artists and only one of my most-listened to songs was instrumental. I love how something as simple as a marketing campaign for an app can bring the world together to share similar interests and connect with each other. It’s truly an impressive feat that Spotify has managed to accomplish. I’m excited for next year, as always, and ready to see what my listening future holds next.