With the holiday season approaching and the year coming to a close, it’s time for “Spotify Wrapped,” every music lover’s favorite present, to once again round off annual listening habits.

Being the world’s leading music streaming service, Spotify needs something to keep their users listening all year long. “Spotify Wrapped”, which initially started as a promotion campaign, has grown into a popular conversation starter amongst friends and family. This personalized recap has been widely shared on social media since its creation in 2015, being available for both premium subscribers and those with a free membership.

Every December, Spotify users look forward to what “Spotify Wrapped” has in store. According to Daily Campus, “Spotify Wrapped” is “…allowing listeners to view their listening trends from the previous months with categories like Most Played Song, Top Five Artists, and Top Podcast.” After scrolling through a personalized slideshow which resembles that of an Instagram story, users are able to see a tailored playlist which consists of their top 100 songs of the year (dailycampus.com).

Each year, there are new features added to keep users intrigued. Junior Angela Hammett said, “One of my favorite features from ‘Spotify Wrapped’ was an incredibly unique one which was highlighted last year. The audio aura feature [a combination of colors representing you top two music moods] was different from the year before, and was a cool way to see your listening moods. Additionally, you could compare your ‘audio aura’ to your friends and see how others’ looked.” Other features over the years included two truths and a lie about your top songs and podcasts, soundtrack to your life, and the various countries your music originated from.

   Different features of “Spotify Wrapped” tend to surprise listeners. Hammett said, “Usually the most shocking part of my ‘Spotify Wrapped’ is the amount of time that I spend listening to music, as well as the amount of songs, artists, and genres I listened to that year. Often, the songs that make it into my top five are equally as shocking, as they might have been songs that I only listened to at the start of the year or ones I didn’t even realize I streamed that much.”