It?s Beginning to Look a lot like Spotify Wrapped?

Hey everyone! It's that time of year again. And I'm not talking about the holiday season. No, it's time for everyone and their cousin to start posting their Spotify wrapped data. If you're unfamiliar with Spotify in general (or otherwise live under a rock without social media of any kind), Spotify wrapped is something special that the music streaming service does for its subscribers at the end of every year. They utilize some very complex data mining techniques in order to show you your own personalized yearly review in the form of your music and podcast listening habits. As the end of the decade nears, Spotify upped the ante by releasing data that shows users' listening habits over the last 10 years. This data is interesting and entertaining for the millions of Spotify users.

Some of the data that Spotify offers in its special edition end of the year stories includes how many hours of music you have listened to, your top 5 most-listened to artists, your top 5 songs of the year, and your number one artist of the decade. But they don't stop there, Spotify does a deep dive on your listening in order to show you a graph of which genres you have spent the most time with and how much time you spent, year by year, listening to music on Spotify. However, these are just a few of the stats that Spotify provides its users in their wrapped stories - all of which is presented in easily digestible and concise infographics.

Daily and Weekly Personalized Playlists

At the end of the year, Spotify users received a variety of gifts. These gifts included data, graphs and charts of songs and artists that the user enjoyed over the year (and decade), as well as personalized playlists that were based on the user's top plays. It has been proven difficult for streaming services to retain users, and Spotify is one of those rare apps that goes above and beyond to make its users feel valued. This might be one of the many reasons why users do not often feel the need to find other streaming services. These personalized playlists are not unique to Spotify's end of the year celebrations either. In fact, this is one of the most beloved things about Spotify: the fact that they create personalized playlists for you, several, in fact, on both a daily and weekly basis. Again, these playlists are based on your listening habits and which songs you have favorited or added to playlists of your own design. There are several daily mixes, for instance, that Spotify users can throw on for quick and easy automatic curation of their favorite songs and artists. With 5-7 daily mixes, usually separated by genre, enjoy several brand-new playlists for any occasion every day of the year!

Spotify has become renowned for the algorithm behind their lauded Discover Weekly playlists, which are created just for each user. What makes these playlists so great is the fact that they are packed full of songs and artists that you have likely never heard before (or have never played on Spotify before at the very least).

This is probably my favorite feature on Spotify. I have found many great artists and tracks thanks to my Discover Weekly playlists. Many of the bands who have become timeless favorites of mine may have never come across had it not been for these playlists. It's one of the things that I look forward to each week. Plus, it releases on Monday; so, it's a fantastic way to stave off the Monday blues.

Another very useful playlist that Spotify creates specifically for each member is the Release Radar. This weekly playlist is focused on helping you stay up-to-date on new releases from the artists you already love. If a musician you have listened to at least once puts out anything new, Release Radar will make sure you hear it. You will never fall behind on new releases again with a Spotify account.

Every Song Ever Recorded (Almost)

Spotify is a respected streaming service for its vast music library. It contains practically anything you could want to listen to, as well as some ?more difficult? artists who have refused to make their music available on the platform. However, almost all musicians (known and underground) have their entire catalogs on Spotify. This was especially noticeable when Jay-Z put out his own streaming service, Tidal, but later restored his Spotify catalogue rights. This event was a major victory for hip hop fans everywhere. I suppose he has finally realized that Tidal will never be as popular as Spotify is. Spotify recently embraced the world of podcasts and has an almost as immense and varied selection of podcasts as the selection of music. Again, save for a few, basically any podcast that you love can now be streamed on Spotify. This streaming service makes it quite possibly the most versatile of all the music streaming apps and sites out there.

The Daily Drive is a playlist that Spotify creates for its users. Its purpose is to provide a relaxing and thought-provoking way to commute to work. However, the playlist hasn't quite caught on as well as other Spotify playlists, such as Discover Weekly or Release Radar.

Flawless and Reliable Music and Podcast Streaming Quality

I have not experience any buffering speed or poor sound quality issues in my five years as a premium member of Spotify. I use Spotify primarily on my phone, as many Spotify users do, but as long as I have solid cell service or WIFI, the service functions flawlessly. Every time. This is not something unfortunately every streaming service can say for themselves. But it is very important to Spotify members, so you will be in good hands. Many people disagree with me about whether the design of the Spotify app is the best that it could be. I think it is pretty good. It's definitely a little different, which can make it somewhat confusing to adapt to at first. But once you get used to the layout, Spotify is just as easy to use as any other app. I mean, it can't be easy to figure out how to box an app that does so many different things.

The app is essentially split into three main sections: Home, Search, and Your Library. On the Home page is where you will find all of the playlists made for you and content that Spotify suggests based on your listening - it essentially is not unlike Instagram's Discover page. Your Library is where you will find all of the playlists that you have created (PS you can create as many as you like, with no cap on how many songs can appear on each). And the search section? Well, I think that's pretty self-explanatory, don't you?

Spotify has an in-browser and standalone program for Mac and PC. I would recommend downloading the program over using the in-browser version of Spotify (it's clunky, not as intuitive or streamlined, etc.). The standalone program is fun, too, because it doubles as a sort of social network on which you can see a live feed of what your friends are listening to. Yet another great way to discover new sounds.

According to me, Spotify is unquestionably the most important music streaming app available. With access to virtually every piece of music ever created, there's nothing not to like about it. Plus, its premium rates are comparatively very reasonable. If you haven't yet switched to Spotify, now would be a good time to do so.