Spooky season marks the start of the holiday season, but for music streaming giant Spotify, it signifies the end of the streaming year. Just as Uproxx rounds up the top music critics for our year-end best-of lists (see our 2022 albums selections here), Spotify rolls out their Wrapped series for users. The data collection effort shows listeners their favorite bodies of work, singles, and genres, amongst other things.
Last year’s most streamed album on the server came from Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran, and Doja Cat. The most streamed artists were Bunny, Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, and BTS. But Spotify Wrapped is personalized for each user, so when does the software stop tracking your listening history?
Today (October 24), news aggregator Pop Base tweeted a reminder to its followers. “One week from today, Spotify will stop counting users’ streams for Spotify Wrapped 2023,” read the post.
https://twitter.com/PopBase/status/1716835379142377928
According to Newsweek, this timeline is accurate. Spotify reportedly collects users’ data for the personalized experience between only data from January 1 to October 31 each year. Brendan Codey, associate director for Creator Growth and Programs at Spotify, explained the rationale behind the discussion in 2021.
“We have this hard cut-off just for the sake of campaign logistics. We need to QA the site and finalize assets for Wrapped, all of which takes a while. You throw Thanksgiving into the mix, and we have even less time,” said Codey.
Update: In a tweet posted on October 26, Spotify noted, “Hmm, that doesn’t sound right to us. Don’t worry, Wrapped is still counting past Oct. 31 [eyes emoji].”
Hmm, that doesn't sound right to us. Don’t worry, Wrapped is still counting past Oct. 31 👀 https://t.co/44bFBUURLz
— Spotify (@Spotify) October 26, 2023
