Spotify Wrapped 2022: Music lovers’ favorite day of the year

Written by Kaitlynne Rainne. Image by Abby Chadwick.

‘Tis the season! Well for the holidays, yes but for music enthusiasts, artists and fellow Spotify users, it’s a different kind of holiday celebration. 

Spotify Wrapped 2022 dropped and boy did it deliver. 

For those who aren’t familiar with Spotify Wrapped, here’s a brief description. Spotify Wrapped began in 2015 as a “Year in Music” feature allowing users to look back at the past 365 days through the songs and artists they listened to. Since then, Spotify Wrapped has become an annual tradition, an ‘internet holiday’ and expanded into an immersive user experience opportunity for users. It’s now a deep dive into the music and podcasts users listened to the most throughout the year broken down by top artists, songs, genres, minutes listened and other exciting categories.

During the last week and a half of November, Spotify users, including myself, eagerly anticipated when Wrapped would be released. Because Spotify doesn’t tell its users what day Wrapped will come out, the music streaming platform keeps people on their toes, continuously checking the Spotify Wrapped hub until Spotify releases Wrapped somewhat spontaneously, like a happy Christmas gift. 

Based on previous years, Spotify tended to release Wrapped during the first week of December. However, in the last days of November, Spotify began posting teasers on their social media platforms, namely Twitter and Instagram. Teasers included World Cup football players, man-on-the-street interviews, the official Twitter Spotify Wrapped hashtag and an opportunity for users to predict what their top song would be– all hinting that this year’s Spotify Wrapped would be coming a lot quicker than most thought. 

Wrapping up the month of November on the 30th (pun fully intended), Spotify gifted its users with the most anticipated holiday of the year– Spotify Wrapped Day. This year’s Spotify Wrapped included familiar stats including top genres, artists, podcasts and songs along with two new features that were a joy to see.

Spotify Wrapped Day had me fully immersed in the Wrapped experience and I thought it’d be fun to share my Wrapped and review. As I mentioned earlier, I truly believe that this year’s Spotify Wrapped was the best yet, at least in the few years I’ve been a ‘Spotify Wrapped girlie.’ 

Upon opening the app for the first time, users are greeted with the Spotify Wrapped rollout message. Bold, vibrant shapes and rich colors composed the message giving the wrapped design identity, a geometrical, pop art vibe. According to Spotify design director Bruno Borges, the entire visual marketing campaign for Wrapped was based on what the team referred to as monograms, the geometric, bold shape designs that were present throughout the Wrapped story. For the team this year, the idea was for the design campaign to represent self-expression and play and I can confirm that Spotify Wrapped played well. 

Following the Wrapped meet and greet message, Spotify launched users into space to explore their top genres of 2022. It’s one of those moments that can be a real callout as it shares how many genres of music users. I laughed at the 65 genres I listened to throughout 2022 with the top five as Pop, Rock, Pop Punk, Contemporary Country, and Neo Mellow. 

One of Wrapped’s new features followed, called My Audio Day. This is an analysis of the genres user’s listened to during their day. According to Spotify, I listened to Empowering Confident Angst in the mornings, switched it out for some Yearning, Comforting, and Pumpkin Spice in the afternoons, and danced the night away to Party Animal, Heartache, Comforting. Now, I have no idea what songs fall into each of these categories but I do know that it’s uniquely niche enough to be accurate to my listening habits. 

The self-expression and play design theme moved users throughout the other slides consisting of Traditional Spotify stats – top song, top five songs, top artist and top five artists. For users who listened to podcasts during 2022, the top five podcast statistics were also included in this section. 

I’ll be honest, my top song, “Happier Than Ever” by Loveless, surprised me. It hadn’t been included in my top ten song guesses but I’m not disappointed by it being my top song. It sure beats the Little Mermaid 2 song that was my top song last year. Don’t ask. My other top four songs were “Unwell” by Matchbox Twenty, “Thank You” by Boyce Avenue, “Alejandro” by Lady Gaga and “Beautiful with You” by Halestorm, all of which hold a special place in my heart. 

For the second year in a row, my top artist was Taylor Swift and my most streamed song was “Superstar (Taylor’s Version).” I’m also very glad that this year I made it into her top 2% of listeners, a percentage I plan on besting for next year’s Wrapped. In order, my other top artists include Florence and The Machine, Halestorm, Taylor Acorn and Gin Blossoms. 

The second and last new feature Spotify released was my favorite Wrapped feature yet. Created by the team at Spotify, each listener was given a Listening Personality based on how they listened to music this year. Think 16 Personalities but for music. It was entertaining swiping through Instagram and seeing my friends’ Listening Personalities. As with the rest of my Wrapped, my Listening Personality was very accurate on how I approach music. I’m a Voyager, ENLC (Exploration, Newness, Loyalty, Commonality) and I expand my world through sound. I’m like a musical globetrotter. Or a musical sponge. My Call. If you’d like to explore your Listening Personality more, Spotify has you covered with this breakdown. 

And, well, that’s a wrap! Spotify closed out the Wrapped interactive slides with its thank you message and the common summary slide.