Each year, Apple Music and Spotify release a personalized recap of their listener’s music in a story-like format. Users get to watch their year of music in a short set of pictures, including how many minutes they listened to, their top albums, top songs, etc. Apple Music’s recap is called the Apple Music Replay, which was released back in 2019, while Spotify’s recap is called Spotify Wrapped, which was released 6 years earlier, in 2013. Every year users show off their recaps through popular social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Junior Cole Johansen is a dedicated Spotify user, and he enjoys looking at his Spotify Wrapped each year.
“I love rewatching my year of music, it’s interesting to see how much of my time goes towards listening, and what songs I’ve played the most throughout the whole year.”
Besides sharing their recaps, Apple Music and Spotify users go back and forth over which application is better. Some even claim that Apple Music stole Spotify’s idea since their Wrapped came out earlier. Apple Music’s Replay is different from Spotify since they allow their users to replay the entire year’s worth of songs in one playlist, which is available all year if users listened to enough songs. This replay is updated weekly.
Junior Maya Garay explains, “I posted my Spotify Wrapped this year on my Instagram story to share with my friends. I love to look at all my top artists and really relive my year through the different songs and albums. It’s crazy how much music impacts my life.”
Both Wrapped and Replay are very similar with top artists, songs, and genre. Although Wrapped includes a listening summary, for example, “Cyclops” is a listener who is “loyal and devoted” to one genre. While, “Shapeshifter” is a listener who switches back and forth between many artists. Wrapped also has “Peak Listening Months” for different artists that the user listens to in each month of the year.
Garay continues, “It’s interesting to look at how different everyone’s music tastes are and how much they listen to music. I found my “Minutes Listened” to be pretty high, but others are even higher than mine.”
Many celebrities post their Replay and Wrapped on their stories as well. Outer Banks Star Carlacia Grant posted her Wrapped this year, as well as singer Madison Beer. Whether listeners use Apple Music or Spotify, each unique recap showcases their taste in music throughout the year.
