Overview
- Spotify says a listen counts after 30 seconds, Wrapped covers January 1 through mid November, offline plays are included, and streams in Private Mode or content excluded from a user’s Taste Profile do not influence taste-based stories.
- Different stories use different formulas: Top Songs by total listens, Top Artists by a weighted stream count that favors primary artists, and Top Albums based on listening to a majority of tracks plus how evenly a user played the album.
- The company says its data scientists test ranking methods throughout the year to make results feel personal and advises using Private Mode and the exclude-from-Taste-Profile feature to shape future recaps.
- Wrapped 2025 adds touches like a listening age, a fan leaderboard, and a group comparison option, and reporting says more than 200 million people engaged with this year’s release in the first 24 hours.
- An EL PAÍS analysis argues the viral ritual functions as free advertising that mutes scrutiny of Spotify’s year, citing concerns over the CEO’s investment ties, artist departures, AI-generated ‘fake’ artists, stream fraud, and ICE ads, and warning of algorithmic homogenization.