My Year Can’t Be Wrapped
It’s funny because this year I actually switched off of Spotify & moved to Apple Music so I have both an Apple Music Replay & a Spotify Wrapped. Spotify Wrapped represents Jan-Aug & Apple Replay represents Aug-now.
It feels like two stories mostly isolated from each other, with some overlap but neither knows the full picture. Do these streaming platforms ever know the full picture about how we consume or interact with music & what it means to us? I don’t think so. They know what we listen to on their platform.
Those listens aren’t always intentional though. Sometimes we go to play our current hyperfixation song & then it automatically rolls into whatever comes next. Do we get a lot of accidental listens from that? Probably. With AI DJs & algorithms constantly feeding us music based on what we’ve already played, we end up hearing the same songs over & over. Does that contribute to more passive listens on certain tracks? Absolutely.
I still find the stats interesting because they jog my memory about my digital listening behavior… but it is only the surface of my actual experience with music in 2025.
I felt a lot of big emotions this year. I felt love, I felt heartache, I felt inspired, I felt free, I felt fucking angry, I felt overwhelmed, I felt confident, I felt scared, I felt excited. Music is the thing that is always a constant in my life no matter what I’m going through. It’s a way for me to process & feel seen with those big emotions. My year was complex & data like that can’t capture a complex story. The only person who can tell that story is me… the human who actually lived it.
Here is the non-linear collection of things that shaped my listening this year:
I found a new appreciation for storytelling this year & with that, started listening to more albums all the way through.
I haven’t been the biggest fan of Justin Bieber’s music since his earlier stuff when I was younger, but I had quite the Bieber Fever with the release of Swag & Swag II this year. It had influences from Dijon, who was also one of my top artists of the year.
Olivia Dean tickled my brain this year. My appreciation for her actually started with seeing videos of how she performs live on TikTok. Her entire essence is so captivating.
My age from Spotify Wrapped was 77. I was listening to a lot of older music this year. In early February, my mom was in New Hampshire visiting her aunt & uncle with my grandma & a few others. There was a big snow storm & my mom said they were sitting around the fire & drinking some wine. I sent one simple text & it got them rolling: "Ask everyone what their favorite song is?" My mom started firing texts my way & I was just trying to keep up with creating a playlist on my end. Somehow this turned into a 293 song playlist, mostly from the 60's & 70's.
I got a new record player last Christmas, so I listened to a lot more vinyl this year.
Two artists from my teen years released music that felt like a full circle moment for me. Kid Cudi & Lil Wayne. You had Kid Cudi’s album Free that led me to explore his evolution from Man on the Moon to now. You also had Tha Carter VI that certainly had me going back through Tha Carter to Tha Carter V.
I unlocked Mac Miller music from his catalog that I had previously brushed over, which I talk about here.
I listened to “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner on repeat to hype me up to leave my job this year to start my own company. Spotify says I listened to it 86 times… I can assure you this was actually intentional.
Jessie Murph was a very unexpected artist for me this year, which I talk about here.
”Play My Music” by the Jonas Brothers was my top played song of September. This is because my dad was coming into town & I called him up a week or two beforehand & was like “the Jonas Brothers will be in town when you are here” so then we said fuck it & got tickets.
Each of these things shaped the way I listened to music this year… & that’s not even touching the live music experiences I had. Only I could tell you those things.
