The Soundtrack of 2022: Unwrapping Spotify’s Year in Review

The+Soundtrack+of+2022%3A+Unwrapping+Spotifys+Year+in+Review

As people all over the world eagerly waited for the release of their Spotify Wrapped, mixed reactions emerged concerning their statistics. The annual tradition of Spotify Wrapped never fails to spark conversation and give information to people about their listening habits over the past year.

Every year, Spotify compiles data on its user’s listening habits and releases personalized summaries called Spotify Wrapped. The feature highlights each user’s most played songs, artists, and genres. As the year comes to a close it will be interesting to see which songs, artists, and genres stand out and why.

“Spotify Wrapped is always a fun way to see how my music taste has changed and evolved over the year, everyone is always very excited when the Wrapped arrives,” Senior Maria Isabel Tavera said.

Spotify Wrapped measures the statistics from January 1st to November 30. The summary feature allows users to see their listening habits over the year, including their top songs, artists, and genres, as well as how many minutes of music they have listened to. Users can access their Wrapped data by visiting the Spotify Wrapped website or the app’s home page. The feature also includes a personalized playlist of the user’s top songs and allows them to share their Wrapped data on social media. 

“It’s always fun to get the Wrapped because even though I know my music taste, I like to know what were my top listened songs and compete with my friends to see who listened to the most minutes,” Tomas Arrubla, Grade 10, said.

Bad Bunny was the most listed artist worldwide with 18.5 billion streams. Taylor Swift was Spotify’s second most streamed artist overall, and Drake rounded out the top 3 most-streamed artists globally on Spotify for 2022. The most streamed songs were: “As It Was,” by Harry Styles, with more than 1.6 billion streams globally. “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals and “Stay (with Justin Bieber)” by The Kid LAROI captured the second and third spots, respectively. Bad Bunny’s songs, “Me Porto Bonito” and “Tití Me Preguntó,” were in the fourth and fifth places. The top genres were Trap Latino, Pop, and Rap.

According to a survey conducted among TCS students and staff, Bad Bunny is the most popular artist, being the top artist for 41.1% of the respondents. Coming in second place is Feid, with 17.6% of plays, followed closely by Eladio Carrion at 8.7%. 

“I really like Bad Bunny, and it’s not just me. Every time Bad Bunny drops an album it’s played pretty much everywhere; parties, car drives, family reunions, the radio. Even my grandmother likes Bad Bunny,” Senior Sofia Gamez said.

When it comes to top listened songs, the list is led by “Moscow Mule,” followed by “Titi me pregunto,” “Sola Remix,” and “Me Porto bonito.” These songs have clearly struck a chord with listeners and become some of the most popular tracks of the year.

The top genre on Spotify Wrapped is Trap Latino, which has been gaining popularity in recent years, with its catchy beats and rhythm, it’s no surprise that it has become a favorite among music listeners.

This year’s Spotify Wrapped edition has been met with some controversy, as it has been reported that the data provided by the feature may be inaccurate.

According to the survey conducted, 14.7% of the people believe the data provided by Spotify Wrapped may be inaccurate or misrepresent their musical preferences.

“I don’t like that it showed a lot of the songs that I listened to at the beginning of the year or I didn’t listen as many times. Also, there were some songs that I listened to for three months in a row, though it appeared fifth, which I think is very weird,” Luisa Ceballos, Grade 12, said.

This has generated disappointment and frustration among some users who felt that the data provided by Spotify Wrapped was not accurate, which caused disappointment after months of waiting for the recap. The company has not yet issued a statement regarding the inaccuracies, but it’s expected that they will take the necessary steps to ensure that the data provided by the feature is more accurate in the future.

“I think that this year my statistics were not as accurate. My favorite and the one I listen to most is Grupo Firme and it appeared on Spotify Wrapped that it was Mark Anthony. Even though I do like Mark Anthony, I don’t think I listened to him enough to be my top 1,” Tomas Saldarriaga, Grade 11, said.

“Even though I don’t think my Wrapped was accurate, the feature still is a popular tradition among music listeners. I think that for the feature to continue being a way to know music listening habits, it is important for Spotify to make sure it has the accuracy of the data given each year,” Nicolas Henao, Grade 9, said.