Spotify Wrapped 2021 taught me something new about myself
We're quickly approaching the end of the year, which means it's time for another installment of Spotify Wrapped. As it does at the end of every year, Spotify Wrapped takes the listening habits of Spotify users and arranges them in neat, personalized slideshows. With Spotify Wrapped, each user can see who they listened to the most throughout the year, what their favorite genres were, and perhaps even learn something new about the music they listen to.
How to access Spotify Wrapped
Before you can check out what Spotify Wrapped has in store for your own year-in-review, you first need to know where to find it. While Spotify Wrapped has been accessible via browser in previous years, this time around, it's only available through the mobile app. Upon opening the app, you should see a panel on the home page advertising Spotify Wrapped – tap that to be whisked away into your personal slideshow recapping the year in music.
Spotify Wrapped will take you through your top artists of the year, showing you the songs you listened to most along with your total listening time across all of Spotify. Spotify will even tell you what your most played song of the year was, and for me, that was Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time," which I'm sure we can all agree is a certified banger.
The surprises of Spotify Wrapped
Even if you go into Spotify Wrapped with a good idea of what you listened to most, there are probably still some surprises lurking within. For instance, this year, Spotify Wrapped will also tell you what your "Audio Aura" is. Mine is a lovely shade of pink because my top music moods are "nostalgia" and "happy," apparently.
Aside from revealing your Audio Aura, Spotify Wrapped will also tell you what your most-listened-to genres for the year were. Thanks to Spotify getting very specific with its selection of genres, I'm guessing there will be some surprises regarding these lists. For instance, Spotify says that my fifth-place genre for the year is "mallsoft," which is a genre I didn't even know existed until today (as it turns out, mallsoft is a microgenre that belongs under the vaporware umbrella).
Spotify Wrapped also gets very specific about some things, telling you how many distinct artists you listened to throughout the year and how many times you listened to your top five songs. If nothing else, it's an interesting year-in-review of your listening habits, so it's worth a look. It even comes with a companion playlist containing the 100 songs you listened to most throughout the year, so you can keep listening to that even after Spotify Wrapped disappears from the home page.
Over on Spotify's blog, the company gives us some big-picture details, announcing that Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist on Spotify in 2021. Bad Bunny was followed by Taylor Swift, BTS, Drake, and Justin Bieber (in that order) to comprise the top five most-streamed artists of the year.
Spotify's breakdown also recognizes the "top streamed throwback albums," which were released more than 20 years ago, with Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana's Nevermind, and Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park all making the list. Spotify Wrapped is available now through the Spotify app, so if you're a member, dive in and see which of your music curiosities Spotify took note of in 2021.