It's that time again: Spotify Wrapped Day is coming, which means your followers will shamelessly post their results widely as if it's brand new information. In my case, I've been jamming out to my curated catalog of music on an app for the past five years that you may have heard of in 2015 but never thought about again. The app is called Tidal, or as I like to call it, "The Jay-Z App."
Most of the time, I don't feel like I'm abandoned for having Tidal (except when I have to queue up songs on a road trip), but Wrapped Day is always one of those days of the year when I feel like that. I can no longer live in harmony with Spotify users.
Package day FOMO
As an outsider, Wrapped has been the biggest draw for me over the years on music streaming services. Of course, Spotify has plenty of other cool features that make the $10.99 monthly premium worth it, like personalized playlists that update throughout the day, or 15 hours of free audiobook listening from over 200,000 titles. Still, I never abandoned ship because over the years Tidal has offered something no other streamer has: Beyoncé's support. As a certified member of BeyHive, that's all I need to stay loyal.
However, now that Bey seems to be no longer offering exclusive content and concert pre-sales to Tidal users — at least, that's what her silence throughout the Renaissance tells me — I figured it was finally time to give Spotify a try. But I may not be fully converted yet.
After all, Tidal is actually not offering its own version of Wrapped, called Rewind, to listeners until the end of the year. I'll never understand why Spotify chooses to ignore tracking data for an entire month. How else can I tell the difference between a perennial Mariah Carey fan and a fake?
That said, Spotify has been offering users video feeds from top Wrapped artists since 2022, something even Jay-Z wouldn't have done in his Tidal heyday. Okay, Spotify, you made it happen for me.
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Once people find their Wrapped stats, they pretty much post the results on IG Stories for everyone to see, making today the worst day to be on Instagram. Every year, the quietest person you went to high school with turns out to be chaotic and extroverted one day, while the most annoying person you know proudly brags about their grades as if their favorite song justifies their behavior of. No, you haven't entered the "Era of Villains" yet; what you just heard was "Bring him back!" Olivia Rodrigo has had too many of them this year.
Then you run into people with a superiority complex who act as if their taste in music is completely unique, even though they share the same top streaming artists as everyone else on your timeline. There's no shame in listening to pop music - hey, if I were a loyal Spotify listener, Queen Bey would be at the top of my list every year.
No, you haven't entered the "Era of Villains" yet; what you just heard was "Bring him back!" Olivia Rodrigo has had too many of them this year.
But let's face it: It's a lot harder to find people who don't listen to Taylor Swift, Boygenius, and Lana Del Rey these days, and I don't need your screenshots to tell me who's a fan and who's not. no. Being in the middle is not a bad thing, so just own it!
we can live in harmony again
No matter how much I complain about the plight of non-Spotify users on Wrapped Day, I know it'll never be enough to stop people from posting their results within 24 hours - and interrupting my mindless scrolling. That's fine; I didn't ask for this! But I also don't need to watch your entire Wrapped presentation unfold on the story.
Dear, I would really appreciate it if you could spare me the details and just share the funniest highlights from your Spotify Wrapped. I'm not looking for real-time reactions or detailed analysis of your less-than-shocking results. But I'll compromise and be content with knowing a little bit about your listening habits so that I can form an opinion of you (and your musical tastes) accordingly.
Your top artists, your most played songs, your favorite genres - I'll be minimally involved and maybe even give you a story like here or there, as long as it doesn't blow up my feed Totally unbearable. Hey, I may be jaded, but I'm still nosy.
If you must check the results, you can navigate to the "Wrapped" section of the app to find lists of the year's top songs, albums, and artists, as well as a playlist of the 100 best songs of 2023. On November 29th, when you open the app, you should also see a pop-up window to view your Wrapped.
