NEW YORK -- The end of 2025 is almost upon us.And it's time to unpack Spotify Wrapped.On Wednesday, the music streaming giant delivered its annual recap — giving its hundreds of millions of users worldwide a look at the top songs, artists, podcasts and other audio that filled their ears over the past year (give or take a month and some change).Spotify isn't the only platform — or music streamer — to roll out a yearly glimpse of data collected from consumers' online lives.
But since its launch about a decade ago, Wrapped has become one of the most anticipated.And Spotify is billing the 2025 edition to be its biggest yet, with a host of new features it hopes may address some disappointments users had last year.So, what goes into pulling together Wrapped, and what's new this year? Here's what to know.To compile Wrapped, Spotify collects listening data from Jan.
1 through around mid-November.That gives the company time to solidify finishing touches and deliver its recap to users by early December.But it also means your late November and December streaming habits won't be included, which may be why your favorite holiday songs aren't on the list, or other year-end hits.For top songs, artists and — for the first time this year — albums to show up on Spotify Wrapped, the platform looks at a mix of what you stream and how long you listen for.According to Spotify, users must listen to at least 30 tracks for over 30 seconds each to get top songs.
For artists, users need to listen to at least five unique artists for over 30 seconds.And for top album, users need to have listened to at least 70% of the tracks on one album.
The company confirmed that data is collected evenly across all platforms — and that streaming in “offline” mode will also be counted, as long as the device connects back to the internet a few weeks before Wrapped's launch.Listening using Spotify's “private mode” features, meanwhile, won't contribute to any rankings, but will still count...