DEC 12, 2024 | OPINION | By Grant Loui
Another Spotify Wrapped day has come and gone, which only means one thing: no one is happy. Even if you don’t have Spotify, you are forced to go through the same ritual every year: the endless complaining, bragging and the annual reminder that no one cares about the Apple Replay — it’s the same song and dance every year. But not this year. No, this year, I am here to speak for the voiceless, give power to the weak, and fight back against the Spotify users’ oppression of us Apple Music users, and all other platforms for that matter.
Spotify Wrapped came out on Dec. 4, and I saw my friends repeatedly complain about their Wrapped or brag about being among the top listeners of an artist. I don’t dare contribute to the conversation because, as I’ve often been told, “Don’t post your Replay today. Today is about Wrapped.”
To be fair, the only people posting their Apple Replay are the ones who feel excluded.
No one is excited about the Replay, which can be attributed to one key factor: we can see our Replay whenever we want with a playlist of our top songs. Then at the end of the year, we are shown some stats, but it’s never that exciting because I’ve known what my Replay would be since February.
Sure, Replay doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Wrapped, like a video of a celebrity looking like a deer in headlights, generically thanking “me” for being a top listener while self-congratulating themselves. But what makes missing this video manageable is I could find that video on YouTube and, no one is ever disappointed with their Replay, because we saw our top songs change as we grew through the year. It feels like a culmination of the musical growth we’ve experienced, and you can revisit it at any time. We don’t have the expectations to be disappointed.
On the other hand, a year’s worth of songs is thrown at you for Spotify Wrapped. Yes, sometimes you can see a month’s stats, but it’s never all 12. Inevitably, songs that were bangers in March feel like skips in June and are forgotten in December. And that’s supposed to be part of it; Spotify wants you to feel nostalgic. While a year is a long time, feeling nostalgia for a song you enjoyed in the spring isn’t going to happen in such a short amount of time.
The Spotify user base then takes all of this out on non-Spotify users. They don’t want to see our top songs because we don’t fit the mold of an angry Spotify user who needs to vent with one another. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself they aren’t excluding you because they don’t like you; they aren’t including you because they are jealous of the ambivalence you have at the fact that you get to see your Replay of this and any other year at any time. They didn’t need to get their hopes up and are envious that we non-Spotify users are free of the cycle of distraction that is Spotify Wrapped. And I hope if someone feels like I did, they can feel seen and inspired. So, do it if you want to share your top songs — whether out of frustration or joy. Don’t let a Spotify user tell you what you can and can’t do — and you could always wait a week because no one will care about their Wrapped anymore.