LOS ALAMITOS, CA — Every year, Spotify sends out a recap to its users on the music statistics that they accumulated throughout the year. This recap is called Spotify Wrapped, and it takes every listener’s streaming data from Jan. 1 – Oct. 31 and compiles it into a set of slides that tells the users what songs and artists they listened to. Wrapped tells listeners various data from their top streamed artists to their top streamed songs over the year.

What new features have been added?

Two new features to display listening data have been added to Wrapped this year. One of the features is that people are placed in a “Sound Town,” which puts people in a location across the globe with listeners that best align with their musical tastes. Some of these towns include Santa Cruz, Flagstaff, and Burlington.

The other feature, “Me in 2023,” is where people are given one of twelve characters made by Spotify that match their listening style. These characters come with descriptions that match an individual’s personality type according to their taste in music.

How do students feel about Spotify Wrapped?

Students love to see their stats at the end of the year because they can see the time they put in listening to their favorite genres and artists. Having a recap at the end of the year allows students to see how their listening habits changed over time and what songs they had on repeat throughout the year.

“I like Spotify Wrapped because I get to see how much I listen to my favorite artists throughout the year,” said Ryan Beyma, a junior at Los Alamitos High School.

A common tradition for many students that comes with receiving their Wrapped stats is posting them on social media for their friends to see. Yet this trend often leads many people to Photoshop and edit their stats to remove unwanted songs and artists from their data.

People even claim that the machine-learning algorithm that Spotify uses to collect data for Wrapped is flawed and that artists showed up in their Wrapped that they didn’t stream as much as other artists throughout the year.

“Some artists are in my top five that I hardly listened to this year. I feel like it’s not as accurate as it seems,” said Ella Shapiro, a Los Al senior.

Spotify Wrapped is a great feature that brings people together to share their music tastes with others and connect over their favorite music. The recap creates a way for people to appreciate the artists and songs that they streamed throughout the year and open themselves up to another year of music listening.