Every year, Spotify Wrapped is highly anticipated by music fans across the world. Well, at least by those who use Spotify. The 2023 Spotify Wrapped hit Spotify home screens on Wed. Nov. 29. For those who don’t know what it is, Spotify Wrapped is an end-of-the-year look at the user’s top songs, genres, artists, and podcasts. It is presented in a fun slideshow-style presentation that users can choose to view. 

I was greatly looking forward to Spotify Wrapped this year. I listened to a lot of new songs this year so I wanted to see how it would affect my top songs. I was also curious how my tendency to skip from genre to genre would affect my top songs. 

All of my top songs were songs that I started listening to this year. My top song was one that I listened to over and over again after I first discovered it in January. The rest of the songs were ones that I listened to for the first time this year so that was a fun thing to see. My top artist this year was Taylor Swift, which totally makes sense. I listen to a lot of her stuff, even though I don’t listen to it on repeat like I do other songs. 

Okay enough about my music taste, let’s talk presentation. When I first opened it, I thought the colors would clash in the way that early 2000s tend to, but it didn’t. I loved all the colors and the ways they played off each other. The graphics were either very blocky or flowy and round. Taken together, the colors and the graphics gave an early 2000s vibe, but I did not hate it. I like the way they do it in a slideshow format. That makes it easier to re-watch the slides you want to and skip the ones you’re not interested in. 

One thing that I thought was odd was the hero description of the listening profile. The description they gave me was “the vampire” because, according to Spotify, I like to “sink my teeth into darkness” and I like “emotional, atmospheric” music. I’m not quite sure what the purpose of this is because I just found it odd. The other options, from seeing other people’s profiles, were also just as odd. I wish there would be more of a description of the purpose behind this in future years. 

The other thing that I didn’t love about Spotify Wrapped this year was the order in which they presented the information. They started with top genres and ended with top podcasts. Right before they gave top podcasts, they showed the top song. I wish they had done podcasts first and then gone into top genres, and artists, and ended with top songs, as I feel as though Wrapped builds up to the top song every year. 

On the whole, I loved Spotify Wrapped this year. I’m quite pleased with how my top music turned out. I have loved seeing everyone posting theirs. It’s a fun way to connect with people with similar interests. 10/10 recommend getting and using Spotify simply for Wrapped.