At the end of every year, (since 2016), Spotify releases your Spotify Wrapped. This is a culturally relevant event for many of the platform’s users, and many of us feel it important to post at least one fact about our listening habits from our own individual slideshow, crafted just for us.
However, in the past few years, I have found my Spotify Wrapped to be predictable, with maybe one song or fact I did not realize was true. For example, this past year, my top song was “A Heart Full of Love,” from the Les Miserables musical movie.
Now, I have been made aware that you can go to settings, “Privacy & Social,” and turn on a private listening session, (so now I can fall asleep listening to whatever musical theatre song that I want to on repeat).
I often come away from Spotify Wrapped feeling somewhat letdown. That being said, there is an aspect of Spotify that greatly intrigues me: the Made for You Mixes.
The appeal of Spotify comes from its personalization. So it makes sense that they would create playlists that are sectioned by artists, genres and decades.
As stated before, I listen to music when I sleep. This led me to uncover multiple “made-for-me” playlists with slightly varying titles regarding sleep, not limited to “Slow Baby Sleep Mix” and “Good Night Mix.” Nice, right?
As you can imagine, this started a quest to figure out just how oddly specific these mixes get. I started my research as anyone would: with adjectives.
Music for specific moods seemed like a good place to start. Not only is there a “Happy Mix,” but there is a “Feel Good Happy Mix.” I typed in “Evil Mix,” and found it, along with “Vampire Mix,” “Dogs Water Mix” and more.
As expected, there is an individually crafted Breakup Mix made for you, but more than that, you can find a playlist that describes the breakup, including “Heartbroken Breakup Mix,” “Empowering Breakup Mix” and “Happy Breakup Mix.”
I think the reason these playlists are so intriguing to me is the specificity granting you options with your music. It is easy to forget how much range we all have in our music taste when for a few months you spend most of your time only listening to one or two. Creating multiple playlists for different scenarios enhances Spotify’s appeal to the personal.
Perhaps my favorite area of specificity comes from the options available in the collection of “Breakfast Mix” playlists:
There are more titles, as always, for any type of breakfast, lunch, dinner, (or breakup) you could imagine.
I cannot discuss my admiration for the Made for You playlists without giving credit to its predecessor: the Discover Weekly playlist. Spotify’s programming is deeply catered to the listener, most times when I give my Discover Weekly an honest chance, I come out of it with a new favorite artist.
Many people joke that in the month of December after your Spotify Wrapped comes out, you can listen to anything you want without it being reflected in your Spotify Wrapped for next year. But why not listen to what you want to listen to throughout the whole year?
Or better yet, find something fresh. Take a step out of your normal playlists and see what you Spotify can give you. (I trust them. They know what music I would play at a fancy breakfast).