Spotify is preparing to release this year’s edition of Spotify Wrapped, the platform’s annual deep dive into users’ listening habits. The company activated a loading page on Wednesday, signalling that the much-loved feature could drop at any moment.
Spotify Wrapped summarises everything listeners have streamed throughout the year—from top artists and favourite songs to most-played podcasts—and has become one of the internet’s biggest end-of-year traditions.
When Will Spotify Wrapped Drop?
Spotify Wrapped typically arrives in the week after Thanksgiving.
- In 2024, it launched on 4 December.
- In 2023 and 2022, it dropped in late November.
This year, Spotify’s landing page simply tells users: “We’ll let you know when it’s ready.” which means it could be anytime soon
How to Access Your Spotify Wrapped
Anyone with a Spotify account can view their Wrapped directly in the Spotify app.
Spotify advises users to update to the latest version for the smoothest experience. Once live, Wrapped appears as a series of colourful, swipeable slides showcasing:
- your top songs
- top artists
- favourite genres
- most-played podcasts
- and your personalised Top 100 playlist
How Spotify Calculates Wrapped
For last year’s edition, Spotify analysed listening activity from 1 January to 15 November.
Key points include:
- Any track played for 30 seconds or more counts towards rankings.
- Offline listening counts only when the device reconnects to the internet.
- Your Top 100 playlist is based on play counts, not total minutes listened.
- Your top artist is determined by the number of songs you played, not hours spent.
Spotify also releases global charts; Taylor Swift topped last year’s rankings and is widely expected to repeat the feat.
Why Does Spotify Track All This Data?
Beyond Wrapped’s hype, this data is crucial to how Spotify operates. Every stream is logged for royalty payments, though debates about the fairness of streaming payouts persist.
Spotify also uses listening habits to refine its recommendation algorithms, increase engagement, and boost ad revenue from free users.
As Spotify’s Senior Director of Personalisation, Molly Holder, explained last year: “As you add songs to playlists, listen fully, skip tracks, or engage with artists, you send us signals that help us tailor programming to your taste.”
Celebrities routinely post their results, often with humour:
- Marina revealed she was her own top artist after using her playlists for tour vocal warm-ups.
- Miley Cyrus shared that Britney Spears was her top artist, fitting her long-running references to Britney in Party In The USA.
- Frankie Grande spent 7,600 minutes listening to Ariana Grande in 2024.
- Dionne Warwick jokingly asked fans who had her on Wrapped if they were okay: “Most of my songs are sad and I’m hoping you’re alright. We can talk about it.”
For fans, it is most times used to reflect their appetite for certain artists and kinds of music.