Teens Obsess over Spotify Listening Data
December 12, 2019
Spotify’s personalized “Decade Wrap-Up,” shared by millions of the platform’s users, reveals how important music is to teens.
Spotify, a music streaming service popular among teens and young adults, produces annual “wrap-ups” that inform its members of things like the number of minutes they spend on the app, their top genre, their top-5 artists, and their top-10 songs. Users also have the option to share these video graphics on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.
“Your music taste really defines who you are and people like to show that off,” said junior Cyrene Puno. “It really shows who you are and everyone wants to seem more mature by showing off how individualistic their music taste is.”
The amount of time they spent on Spotify is surprising to some. Sophomore Shan Brinton found that he had listened to over 30,000 minutes of music in the past year. “That’s like 500 hours. It’s crazy how much time I spend on Spotify. I’ve probably listened to the same album at least more than 30 times without realizing it,” he said.
With the end of the decade approaching, Spotify also showed users their top songs and top artists from the past 10 years, revealing changing preferences for many teens. “Back in 2015, my music taste was super basic and I listened to people like Demi Lovato and One Direction, but it’s kind of funny to look back at it now,” said sophomore Colbie Atlas. “I would never have guessed those were my top artists, which is what makes it so interesting.”
“I’ve seen some people’s top artists and its not what I expected at all based off their personality,” added Atlas.
While some students are fond of the trend, others found having to scroll past these posts to be draining and dull. “It’s super annoying. Everyone has their own music taste so I don’t really care. Just listen to what you like to listen to. You don’t have to advertise it,” said sophomore Ella Fisher. “Everyone is just trying to flex how many hours they spend listening to music.”
“I just don’t like it when people are like, ‘Oh my God, my music taste is so good’ and then they have the most basic artists on their top 5 list,” said Puno.
