Photo Credit: Spotify
When does Spotify Wrapped come out? Here’s what we know about Spotify’s end-of-year wrap-up for music fans—and what to expect from yours.
Spotify Wrapped has become an annual music release, giving music fans the world over a glimpse at their music stats for the past year. Spotify shares total hours listened to music, the artists who you’ve listened to the most, and which were your favorites throughout 2023. Last year, Spotify Wrapped was released on November 30, 2022—so expect it towards the beginning of December.
Since the data is released at the beginning of December, it encompasses data tracked from January to October. The company never releases the exact date that Spotify Wrapped will appear, so be on the lookout in the app in December. Now that we know when to expect Spotify Wrapped, you may be wondering how Spotify tracks all of that data for you.
How Does Spotify Wrapped Tracking Work?
While Spotify does an admirable job of tracking all the music you listen to throughout the year, there are some limitations. For a track to count as listened to in your data, it must have played at least 30 seconds. Spotify calculates your top songs from those who received at least one 30-second play as well as how many times you listened to the song. For top songs, only the play count matters rather than the total time listened. For artists, Spotify adds up the entire listening history to showcase how many hours you spent listening to your favorite artist.
Spotify Wrapped usually comes with a personalized playlist that includes the top 100 songs you’ve listened to in the past year. Only the first ten songs are sorted by personal popularity—the rest area sorted by your favorite artist. It’s also worth noting that total time listening includes podcasts on the Spotify platform—so its entirely possible to have a Spotify Wrapped that’s dominated by podcasts if that’s what you listen to primarily on the service.
What happens to the data generated between November 16 and December 31? Spotify seems to use this as a reset period, not including the data in its yearly Wrapped. There’s some speculation about why this is the case, including listening to the generated Spotify Wrapped playlist influencing results. Spotify has never indicated why these last two weeks of the year typically aren’t counted—so it’s a bit of a mystery. You may also be wondering if a private listening session counts toward your Spotify Wrapped history. The answer is yes.
