Spotify Wrapped: a holiday declared not by the nation, but by the hearts of Spotify users. On this day, hundreds of millions of loyal Spotify users gather together to celebrate their listening habits throughout the past year. Regardless of the music portrayed on a wrap, each one is individualized to a specific person. 

Since 2016, every year at the end of Nov. or early Dec. Spotify has released what they call “Spotify Wrapped”. The campaign is an attempt to capture all of the realest moments during an individual’s year on Spotify, showing one’s most played songs, top listened to artists, enjoyed podcasts, and more. 

It also assembles a list of the different merch and concert times available for one’s favorite artists. Some years, there are special messages from some of the most popular artists. Spotify creates a plethora of playlists unique to an individual, and more unique to this year’s top artists on the app. 

For many, Spotify Wrapped is a cathartic time that allows a kind of trip into the past. When Teagan Smith, freshman and long time Spotify user, saw her Wrapped pop up on her Spotify homepage this year, she recalled being excited, yet nervous.

“It’s cool to see how I developed over the year because I feel like my music really reflects how I change throughout my life,” Smith said. 

To find the wrapped, if it does not pop up on the screen when Spotify is first opened, do not be remiss. Simply scroll along the top menu and at the end, a tab labeled “Wrapped” should appear. Once clicked on, a whole variety of different sections will show up. 

Of these sections, a new fan favorite was “DJ Wrapped”. Only available for the first week after the Wrapped was released, DJ was an AI bot that joined people as they took a journey through their year, adding commentary about many artists and genres. 

This year, Wrapped included another new section where specific music taste was deciphered and compared to places in the world, then showing where that person is most likely to live depending on their music taste. For example, lovers of Taylor Swift, Boygenius, or Phoebe Bridgers are likely to land somewhere like Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Now, all of this is fine and dandy, but what Spotify users really want to know is whether or not Wrapped is really worth all the hype; is it all accurate? 

As Wrapped is a compilation of everything you’ve listened to over the year, from Jan 1 to a few weeks before it’s released, it is almost as accurate as possible. It even compiles all of your offline listening once the device is back online. 

Spotify collects all of this data and then uses it to create the playlists, compilations, and other features seen on Wrapped. And yet, even with all of this data collection, some still believe it is not precise. 

Freshman and Spotify user Bailey Demayo was intrigued by her Wrapped this year. 

“My number one artist was Taylor Swift, then Conan Gray, then Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez, and then the Weekend. The first three artists were [accurate to what I listened to] but the second two, not really,” Demayo said. 

Likewise, Smith had a bit to say about her wrapped being imprecise. 

“It was mainly a lot of Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. I think so, [it was pretty accurate] except for this one song, which apparently I listened to a lot, but not really,” Smith said. 

So, for the most part, Spotify Wrapped tries to be as error-free as possible and perhaps these upsets in Demayo and Smith’s are not false at all, and the girls just weren’t expecting those results. 

Overall, Spotify Wrapped is a time for people to reflect on their year, whether the results be surprising, expected, or both. It is long-awaited for all users and captures every bit of listening they’ve done for their enjoyment.