Music wrapped in a year
As 2017 ends, it’s the perfect time to look back at the memories we’ve collected in the past twelve months. It’s easier to remember all of the negativity, from natural disasters to political disasters, however, there’s also the sweet memories of our everyday lives. One way to mark those memories, the wonderfully life changing ones and the ones that came and went in a matter of seconds, is through our music. Music has a way of jolting us into a memory or a feeling that can have a lasting impression, so when Spotify decided to do their 2017 Wrapped, it became the perfect way to bring everyone together to share the memories of their 2017, as remembered through their ears.
It was an absolute tragedy in 2016 when Spotify didn’t release anything like 2017 Wrapped as they did in 2015 when they did a personalized Year in Music, revealing favorite artists and songs as they did this year. However, they went ten extra miles this year by allowing their listeners to see exactly how many minutes of music they listened to. This created a frenzy on Facebook, of everybody wanting to share their 2017 Wrapped and comparing their minutes to others’. This also involved sharing your favorite artists and songs, giving a glimpse into each individual’s life at how they see the world.
This release of 2017 Wrapped also gave a glimpse into how many people stream music. The time for burning CDs and downloading most music from the internet has become a thing of the past, however, we have seemed to both progress in how we listen to music and regress. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 50% of the music industry’s revenue comes from digital platforms. The main reason for this is the amount of users that are streaming their music and over 100 million of those users, globally, have a paid subscription to the services. Though this is staggering, there are still plenty of people buying their music in physical form. However, due to the vintage trends in recent years, many of those people buying physical forms, are in fact buying vinyl. CDs seemed to have become reserved for car rides and boxes of early 2000s memorabilia than we can’t seem to get rid of.
With artists that use streaming services to gain listeners, 2017 Wrapped also allowed them to see exactly how they’re doing on Spotify as well. They can see which kinds of playlists they get added to, which countries they’re streamed in the most, and so on. This connection between the artist and the listener unites entire groups of people who share the same love of a genre or artist, just as it does all listeners.
As we have seen time after time, music connects with us in our everyday lives and allows moments in time, which seem monotonous or uneventful, to be filled with vibrancy and passion. And 2017 Wrapped gave us the opportunity to share memories, those minutes and songs and artists, with the people that may have been a part of some of those moments with you.
Edited by Cheyenne Abrams.
