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I enjoy Spotify Wrapped day as much as the next person. I’m a music nerd—I love knowing my stats and the songs that I liked/listened to the most. I have strange listening habits, hyperfixations on music, and I think it’s really silly and fun to see how that translates into numbers from a listener’s perspective. I like comparing music taste and listening habits with my friends.

I also think it is incredibly, exceptionally shallow and problematic of us, collectively, to reduce something as vulnerable, as important, as creative, and as fundamental to life and the world we exist in as music to nothing more than statistics and stream metrics. I’d argue that Spotify Wrapped is a symptom of the greater problem here, not the actual problem itself, and a broader conversation does need to be had about our transition to streaming services in the realm of music—and, in general, our shift to “renting” our media and art instead of owning it outright, and how that’s affected our artistic climate. Year after year, I see artists continually struggle to be noticed, to make a name for themselves. We, collectively, lean so heavily into streaming metrics and social media followings that we have created a space in which those are the only valid metrics—where an artist’s artistry is not appreciated if they don’t have the “right” number of monthly listeners or don’t make it onto enough playlists, especially this year, as AI “artists” dominate the music scene on streaming platforms and steal opportunities from real artists within record labels.

A footnote: for what it’s worth, Spotify usership has been steadily dropping as a whole on account of Spotify being outed as being intensely problematic with no regard for art, artists, users or the environment. They actively fund Israel’s war crimes against Palestine, Spotify runs a substantial amount of ICE recruitment ads, they laid off employees in favour of generative AI for 2024’s Wrapped, and can be argued to amplify AI “artists” more than real ones while harming real artists in the process and refusing to support them, as well as them refusing to pay or fund artists fairly. Spotify pays the least per stream of any major streaming platform – $0.003 per stream – and will not pay you at ALL unless you’re hitting 1000 streams, despite still making money off of those songs as a platform. In turn, Spotify listenership for individual artists has been dropping as their fanbase shifts to other platforms. Apple Music, the leading competitor platform, does not publicly display listener counts. 

But, that doesn’t make it any easier for artists. Music is incredibly personal and vulnerable. Every time an artist gets out there, pours their heart and soul into a song, puts it out—for that to be reduced to numbers in the eyes of… well, a lot of people—that fucking hurts. It’s hard to put yourself out there over and over again and get absolutely nothing back in return. 

It’s worth bearing in mind too, while artists usually have goals and dreams and ambitions of bigger greater things, the vast majority of small artists I’ve met, engaged with, listened to, worked with over the past year and a bit that I’ve thrown myself back into music as a hobby and a community that i’m engaged with—they just want to be able to feed their families and pay their bills with their art. They want to tour without going into major amounts of debt and working themselves into the ground. They want to have time to make and play and share their music. They want to not have to sell their souls to an algorithm and beg for every little scrap they can get. That is not a lot to be asking for. As a concert photographer and creative myself, I can speak to this with confidence—I don’t aspire to do arena tours, I want to work closely with small artists, build relationships, and watch them grow. 

I am thankful that my friends and communities generally don’t engage in this, but year after year from a listener perspective as well, I’ve watched as statistics and listening metrics become a competition. It’s not about, in some spaces, sharing and connecting and reflecting. It’s about, “I listened more than you, therefore I’m more of a ‘real fan’ than you.” It’s about “this artist was more important to me than they were to you and I’m better than you for that.” Spotify Wrapped has become a measure of who is “better” at  being a fan and why should we be measuring that in any universe?  

My Spotify/Apple Music statistics may reflect the number of times I listened to an artist, but it doesn’t reflect what that artist meant to me. “Six Feet Deep” by We Three might not have been anywhere near my top five this year, but that doesn’t have any bearing on the absolute shit that song got me through in January, and beyond, while in the trenches of grief. There are albums like Jules Paymer’s debut which inspired me beyond belief, but show up in no metrics. moony may not have made it to my top artists, does that negate the fact that I am a part of the most incredible community of moony fans that i talk to nearly every day and consider dear friends on Discord? Brendan Abernathy is nowhere even close to my top five, and yet, I appreciated his message enough to feel compelled to drive seven hours to New York City to see a show on his most recent tour. 

Even artists that did make it to my top five – listening to Maggie Miles the most says one thing, sure, but does it truly capture what that music means to me? It certainly doesn’t show the times I flew out to see her shows, or the art I’ve created inspired by her albums, or the friends I’ve made as a result of her community. Does listening to “luv u 4ever” by OSTON 416 times in a year capture why I wanted to listen to it that much, the emotion and sentimentality associated with it? “Not for Nothing” being my top song doesn’t tell anyone, least of all the artist, the core memory that was listening to it for the first time with my long distance best friend in another country. It doesn’t show a midnight walk with my dog the day “Afterlight” came out and taking notes on all the things that made those songs special and important to me. 

There are so many individuals, bands, songs and albums that I hold so dear to me and have had a monumental space in my life, whether it be for just a day or a week, or for a whole year. There are artists that have never and probably will never show up on my Wrapped, but that I would go to great lengths to travel to see live, or that I consider substantial parts of my childhood, or that… you get the point. Streaming services don’t track the number of times I’ve listened to shitty voice memos of unreleased songs taken at shows from my local files, or the number of friends I’ve made through the same shows. It doesn’t track the CDs I play in my car or the vinyl records I play in my room or the merch tote bags I take great pride in using in the hopes someone will ask me where it’s from. 

I think about my Wrapped stats and then I think about all the people and all the songs that aren’t reflected in a “top five” – and in turn all the parts of me that aren’t reflected. Maybe I’m thinking too hard about all of this, but the songs I listen to are a reflection of myself, in a way. I pray that when people think of my music taste, they think of the songs I’ve recommended them, the ones I put on in the car when they’re there and the ones I share on my playlists, the shows that I’ve been to, the merch that I wear, the photos I take. Not just my wrapped data. It feels sometimes like, until Wrapped day, that I’m the only one I know that cares about, wants to talk about, music. I don’t want my favourite artists, who are people first, to be reduced to a top five number. I don’t want me to be reduced to a top five number. I’m scared that our obsession with our Wrapped – among other things – is indicative of a trend towards a way of thinking about the world, our friends, ourselves in a very concerning way. One that is detached from community and creativity and connection. 

I also think about my own perception of the music I listen to. I wonder if my perspective of what I feel about the songs in my life has become skewed by the stats I see at the end of the year. Do I know which songs were my favourite, or do I just turn to my top five? Do I have recommendations for friends, do I have albums I can reach for to put on to match my emotions or life experiences? I have found myself, over the years, becoming more and more attached to the numbers; feeling like I can’t claim a song as my favourite if I don’t have “high enough” numbers, or even myself as a music fan if I didn’t rack up enough minutes of listening. I am scared – genuinely terrified, even – that I will lose myself and my ability to reflect and connect with the music I care about to numbers. 

As much as I find Wrapped day to be super fun and interesting, I’m still trying to figure out where it fits into my life.  I love stats, and I feel a bit weird about them at the same time, because it’s a struggle to maintain that as important, while also holding space for the other things that are important when it comes to music and artistry. Knowing that the stats are fun for me, but knowing that they are less than that for small struggling artists. I wish we were, collectively, as a whole, better at appreciating those things beyond the numbers, and outside of a couple of days at the end of the year. 

I’m not really sure what my conclusion is here or how I feel, yet. I don’t know if I ever will be 100% sure. The music industry is ever-changing and so am I, and that is, I’d argue, a beautiful thing. We aren’t meant to be static, we aren’t meant to be locked into a space of sameness and still. We also aren’t meant to be computers. We aren’t meant to be reduced to numbers, and least of all are the things we create. We are all meant to connect deeply with something, whether that be music, or something else, and that shouldn’t exist as a competition. There is space for all of us as fans, and there is space for all of us as artists. 

All of that to say – get involved in your local music scene, go to shows, support your local bands. Buy merch, buy your music (!!!!!!), switch to more ethical streaming platforms with better pay rates. Support initiatives like the Living Wage For Musicians Act. Wear your merch. Trade playlists and recommendations with friends. Follow individual playlist curators, music blogs, and magazines. Reflect on your own top songs, artists, and albums before you look at the stats. Connect with people. Go and create something of your own, no matter if you think it’s “bad,” it’s worth it. 

And if you have an artist you appreciate, regardless if they were in your top songs this year… I think you should tell them.