Every year, around the last week of November, Spotify wrapped is released: an individualized report of what a user listened to over the year. It includes statistics such as minutes spent listening to music, top songs and breakdowns on the user’s top genres.

In a survey of ninety-four students at VHHS, 70% reported that they use Spotify.

Eunice Ye (11), Shruti Rozario (12), and Brandon Smith (12) stated that they prefer using Spotify while driving, which is where they get their most minutes.

Compared to last year, students at VHHS anticipate listening to music more this year. 25% of students reported they listened to more than 50,000 minutes of music, whereas this year, 42.2% of students anticipate listening to greater than 50,000 minutes.

In total, VHHS has listened to more than 1.28 million minutes of music over the past year.

Sophie Liechtenstein (9) has noticed changes in her listening activity and appreciates the fact that Spotify is able to record them.

“I like how I can see a review of what I listened to in the past year…and I can see a variety of artists,” Liechtenstein said.

60% of survey respondents picked “top artists,” as their favorite part of their Spotify Wrapped.

Brandon Smith (12) likes being able to see his long-time favorites reflected in his top 5 report. “

“Frank Ocean has been my top artist for the past two years…and Sza,” Smith said.

Shruti Rozario (12), finds some parts of their review surprising.

“I definitely had Taylor Swift [as a top artist]…and Miley Cyrus, which kind of shocked me,” Rozario said.

Eunice Ye (11) stated that parts of her review were also surprising. She said that one of her top genres all year round was Christmas music.

“I think it’s really funny to compare to other people’s Spotify Wrapped,” Ye said.

According to the survey, top genres at VHHS include Pop, Rap and Indie.

Smith stated that Spotify may be inaccurate at times when it comes to summing up his listening tastes.

“I like how it tells me my listening habits throughout the year, but I feel like it can be inaccurate because at the beginning of the year, I usually listen to music that I don’t like now,” Smith said.

Though Spotify tries to review music listened to over the year, in previous years, they have stated that they end
recording listening data in October.

However, 80.3% of survey respondents felt their Spotify was reflective of their listening habits.

This year, Spotify stated that the 2023 Spotify Wrapped includes data spanning after Oct. 31 to make for a more authentic report.