Wrapped Up In 2021
Spotify, you know us too well! The last few days have seen our collective social media timelines filled with links to the stories the streaming music platform created based on their users’ listening habits.
Forgive the pun, but #spotifywrapped2021 is spot on.
Music fiends (fans, aficionados, geeks, connoisseurs, etc.) immerse themselves in ways that give others something to talk about. We play, we sing, we create, we re-do, we listen. And then we do it all over again because the variations on a theme are often more arresting than the theme itself. Sharing these activities and experiences expands our community, exposes us to new ideas, and even pulls us out of a funk.
Where #spotifywrapped falls down, despite trending quite handily, is in the numbers category. We can’t fault them too much. They only have access to their own data about Every. Single. One. Of. Us.
Let’s use this example:
Spotify says a user listened to 20,580 minutes of music and experienced 84 different genres. That amount of time is more than 73% of all other Spotify users. However, it doesn’t take into account time spent on other platforms, listening to the radio or CDs in the car, music video surfing, or time spent creating our own music.
Think about it: If someone has been listening to just one platform and the amount of time is greater than almost three-quarters of the platform’s population, how much of their music obsession is unaccounted for?
Looking back on what songs or artists have moved us through another unexpectedly challenging year should prompt some personal pondering. Why did that indie-folk song hit so poignantly? Can an artist truly be viewed separately from their music? Was work really bad enough to warrant queuing up Johnny Paycheck 157 times?
As we think about what our 2021 theme songs say about us, or to us, share your links to your #spotifywrapped stories in the comments. It’s been a heck of a year. We should wrap it up right.
