Late fall is an exciting time for music lovers—especially those who use the music streaming platform Spotify. This is the time of the annual Spotify Wrapped drop. Essentially, at either the very end of November or the very beginning of December (this year it was on November 30th), users receive a customized overview of their listening history on the app over the past year. Listeners get to see their top artists, songs, and genres of the year; if they listen to podcasts, they get a list of their top shows as well. Every user’s top 100 songs from the period even get put into a unique playlist that they can continue to access even once “Wrapped Season” is over.
Arguably more exciting than seeing your own Spotify Wrapped is getting to see others’. In the few days after Spotify Wrapped drops, people’s Instagram stories in particular are filled with their personal listening statistics for 2022. Given how personal music can be to listeners, many view others’ Wrappeds as a window into who they are. And, if nothing else, it can be fun to see who enjoys the same kind of music you do!
Not immune to the excitement, many students at UCSB eagerly shared their Wrappeds with us for 2022. Top artists ranged from pop stars like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles to indie rock singers including Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers. These four artists, and so many others (Charli XCX, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Noah Kahan, to name a few), have filled the ears of UCSB students on repeat since January first.
When it comes to the specific songs that came out on top, some came from popular top artists. This is not really surprising when we consider that so much good music came out this year, including albums from both aforementioned pop stars. Harry Styles’ “As It Was” fell into my second place spot (falling only behind “Habits” by Genevieve Stokes), which is really no surprise considering he has been in my top artists for the past 4 years. Shockingly, despite Taylor Swift’s Midnights dropping only a couple of weeks before Spotify Wrapped’s listening cutoff (it only reflects your listening data from January first through around the end of October; more on this later), two of the songs made it into my top 100 for the year. Other songs in the #1 spot for UCSB students this year include: “Sober to Death” by Carseat Headrest, “Used to Know Me” by Charli XCX, and “The Good Side” by Troye Sivan. Overall, it looks like there is a good amount of variety in Gauchos’ listening habits.
As previously mentioned, Spotify stops collecting data for your Wrapped either at the end of October or the beginning of November. This means that there are nearly two months (16.7%) of listening left out of our Spotify Wrappeds! This means that albums like Sza’s S.O.S., which just dropped on December 9, have no chance of showing up on someone’s Top 100 playlist, even if it is all they listen to from the moment it drops until 11:59 pm on New Year’s Eve. This also means that all the Christmas music listened to during the holidays probably won’t show up (unless you’re blasting “Last Christmas” in July). The question is, then, if listeners would rather get the entire year’s worth—all 12 months—of listening habits in exchange for a longer wait (the playlists would then be dropped a few days into January at the very earliest). Either way, you can’t have it all.
The day Spotify drops Wrapped for the year is inarguably an exciting day in the music world. Listeners get a chance to review their year through songs and artists, and even non-Spotify listeners can get a peek at friends’ listening habits as Wrappeds are shared across social media. The only things that could possibly be more exciting are the possibilities of how next year’s Wrapped will look!