Spotify is a music-streaming service that launched in 2008. Spotify has grown massively over the past few years, with the platform recently surpassing 713 million users worldwide. One of the most attractive aspects of Spotify is its annual music review, which is released for users near the end of each year. This yearly review is called Spotify Wrapped.
Spotify Wrapped originally debuted in 2015, when it was first titled “Year in Music.” The following year, in 2016, “Year in Music” was rebranded as “Wrapped” and has skyrocketed ever since. The feature is something that fans eagerly look forward to every year, and it can now be viewed easily on the smartphone app in a form similar to social media stories.
In Spotify’s 2024 Wrapped announcement, Marc Hazan, the Vice President of Partnerships and Marketing at Spotify, noted how Spotify Wrapped has become a staple in the music world.
“Our annual thank-you to fans around the world, Spotify Wrapped has become deeply ingrained in the lives of music fans worldwide,” Hazan said. “What started as a look back at the music and audio that defined the year has become a global cultural phenomenon in its own right.”
Following its initial release, Spotify Wrapped has developed new features and interactive stories every year, including personal playlists like “Your Top Songs” and recaps of users’ music evolutions over the year. Just recently, 2025 Wrapped was released for all users, launching numerous new captivating features and layers to add to the experience.
Mathew Zemp (11) is a Spotify user at Spartanburg High School and enjoyed this year’s iteration of the yearly review.
“I like the new design of Wrapped and how it was mostly accurate to what I was listening to,” Zemp said. “I liked the mini games that were present on it when finding out your top artist and song.”
2025 Wrapped included classic features that users have enjoyed in the past, like minutes listened, top songs, top artists and top genres, but it also debuted a multitude of new stories. This included users’ top albums, their listening age, fan leaderboards for artists and a top song quiz in which users guess their most listened-to song.
Wrapped has become one of the key reasons why Spotify has gained millions of users over the years. Many desire to have that unique review feature to reflect upon their year, which has resulted in many users switching to Spotify from other streaming services.
Other streaming services have caught on to Spotify’s yearly review feature, though, and have begun to develop their own versions of it. Apple Music, one of the top competing streaming services to Spotify, launched its own annual music report back in 2019. It started off as simply a singular playlist of one’s top tracks from the year and past years, but in 2022, it experienced a complete redesign, one similar to Spotify Wrapped. Replay now features more cumulative features, including top artists, albums, genres and minutes.
Harrison Babb (12) is an Apple Music listener at Spartan High who enjoyed Replay’s yearly review but also noted how he thinks Wrapped may be the better service.
“I like being able to see who my most listened-to artist was and how many minutes I listened to them. However, I do believe that Spotify Wrapped is better than Apple Music Replay,” Babb said. “Spotify reveals more statistics about a listener’s music habits and includes special features like a listening age that Apple does not have.”
Both Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay, despite their differences, have become intriguing features to music fans around the world, attracting millions of users to join streaming services for the unique insight on their own listening patterns.
