December heralds the promise of snowy roads, winter break and platefuls of holiday food – and it means Spotify Wrapped season is upon us once again.
Music streaming platform Spotify dropped its annual music review called “Wrapped” on dec. 3, giving users a peek into their listening habits from January to mid-November. University of Minnesota students reflected on what this year’s musical roundup meant to them.
Spotify started Wrapped in 2015 under the name “year in Music.” They added the “Your Top songs” category and rebranded to “Wrapped” in 2016, becoming the report users are familiar with today.
Every user’s Wrapped is a personalized compilation of their most-listened-to songs, artists, genres and more streamlined into one tap-through experience. That being saeid, some students remain suspicious.
Third-year Audrey Notsch said her top artist was Lady Gaga and each of her top-five songs came from Gaga’s discography. She found it hard to believe that Gaga dominated her yearly listening.
“After last year, I haven’t liked the Wrapped,” Notsch said. “They’re using more AI now, and I just don’t believe it.”
Sharing a photo of one’s Wrapped online has become a social phenomenon over the years, so much so that people circulate memes of Wrapped screenshots with their artists and songs blacked out.
This need for complete transparency online coincides with the lingering effects of cancel culture.
With the public constantly weighing in on music artists’ actions and their value as artists, it’s not surprising many are hesitant to claim who their number one is.Post a Wrapped with the wrong top artist, and others might look at you differently.
Wrapped is purely numbers. It doesn’t reflect when you fell asleep, and the same song played all night, or when your friend put One Direction on in the car for your entire road trip.The results frequently enough feel wrong as they reflect a data-driven narrative, rather than the full story.
Third-year Hana Karim said she was shocked by her top artist: Drake.
“I play the same songs on repeat, and I guess I didn’t realize how much it added up,” Karim said. “I feel like the concept is good, but I definitely think there are some numbers that are skewed in it.”
Karim said she observed her peers sharing doubts about even the amount of time they spend listening to Spotify.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t even really realize I listen to this many minutes of music a day,'” Karim said.
Other students, including Connor Athens, fell on the opposite side of the sp
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