How Spotify closed out 2024 explores identity, culture and nostalgia

As the 2024 edition of Spotify Wrapped arrives, the question arises: Is this celebration of music really about what we listen to, or what it says about who we are?

Spotify Wrapped has refined its formula since its debut in 2015, launching each year with the fervor of a life coach, the whim of a fortune teller, and the precision of a statistician.

Sometimes Wrapped offers an insightful look into the musical journey of the year; at others it feels like another case of datafication of music. While few listeners care about the exact number of songs streamed, many enjoy playlists that remind them of places visited, moments of emotional significance, or abrupt life changes.

More than just a quirky summary of listening habits, Wrapped offers surprising insights into identity patterns, culture, and the growing role of technology in shaping self-perception. And despite its unconventional nature, “Wrapped” can feel personal and profound, helping us understand ourselves through the lens of clicks, jumps and loops.

“Uniquely Yours” – Which way to my Spotify tribe?

Music preferences have long been one of the easiest ways to break the ice among strangers. They are also closely linked to identity and serve as a universal rite of passage for modern youth. Even in the most remote corners of Brazilian slums, children hold life-size posters of Taylor Swift, while music journalists argue that the idols we choose offer a deep insight into the soul.

How well does this narrative compare to the latest big data insights?

A study of a remote Amazon tribe challenges the idea that the brain determines musical preferences. Instead, musical taste is attributed to cultural origins. Researchers at MIT distinguish between the preference for certain chords (such as C and G) that are popular in Western popular music and the preference for less consonant sounds that are prevalent in non-Western cultures. Sociologists have also found that, even as babies, we tend to prefer the music and sounds that are most familiar to us.

It is already known around the world that about half of a person’s income depends on where they live or where they were born. Whether someone protests this fact by attending a punk concert or a reggae festival seems to be influenced by the same geographical factor.

So Spotify Wrapped is more than a personal playlist – it’s a curated snapshot of the broader cultural and societal forces that shape our listening habits.

“For Being in Your Own Spotify World” – A Mirror of Personality Traits

Wrapped is more than just a playlist, it also serves as a personality test. Studies suggest that music taste is closely linked to personality traits, and the results of a machine learning study conducted by Spotify offer a new perspective on this phenomenon.

Spotify’s data scientists examined the connection between Big Five personality traits and listening habits and provided insightful insights. Based on a sample of 17.6 million songs and 662,000 hours of music listened to by 5,808 Spotify users over a three-month period, the study concluded that music preferences can predict personality traits with moderate to high accuracy.

Listeners of soul or “living” music (e.g. Let the good times roll by Ray Charles) showed correlations with emotional stability. In contrast, blues or “brooding” music (e.g. Karma police by Radiohead) tended to have the opposite effect. Fans of jazz and country scored higher on the “pleasant” personality trait than listeners of death metal or “aggressive” music (e.g. Last resort by Papa Roach).

Similarly, lovers of R&B and Latin music scored high on agreeableness, while those who preferred regional music (Japan), gothic, or rock scored lower. Fans of modern and alternative rock were at the lower end of the emotional stability spectrum compared to blues, old country or soul listeners.

The study also uncovered the main reasons for listening habits: participants predominantly used Spotify to regulate emotions or achieve goal-oriented behavior. Anthropologists might interpret this as a commentary on Western culture’s relentless pursuit of productivity and its ongoing search for happiness.

“Spotify Time Capsule” – What happens in high school remains ingrained in our psyche forever

In 2020, an AI bot behind the “How Bad Is Your Spotify” program took over the then-Twittersphere and delivered scathing remarks like, “Your jam hasn’t changed since the Obama era.” Although it’s hard to admit, anecdotal evidence supports it the assumption that adults often have difficulty growing out of the music they loved as teenagers.

A New York Times Analysis using Spotify data supports this theory. The study suggests that the songs we listen to as teenagers shape our musical tastes as adults. Across the Western world, the age at which people are most likely to discover their favorite songs has been identified – 13 for women and 14 for men. Women have also been found to be more influenced by their formative years.

Musical preferences often coincide with the emotional highs and identity formation of adolescence. These songs act as cognitive time capsules, evoking moments of heartbreak, discovery and self-realization.

Wrapped taps into this nostalgia, celebrating listeners’ enduring love of the familiar while reinforcing the idea that musical taste is often frozen in time.

“Discover Weekly” – The role of the Spotify algorithm in shaping taste

How much autonomy does the average user have in choosing how to interact with the Spotify algorithm?

Much has been written about Spotify’s supremacy as a streaming service, due in large part to its music recognition algorithms and recommendation engine, which are based on collaborative filtering models, NLP and audio models.

The same algorithm is “instructed” to keep the user’s finger as far away from the skip button as possible by detecting played songs and including them in future playlists. The service is based on familiarity and its playlists focus on emotions, moods and activities rather than individual artists, albums or genres.

In this way, the platform’s recommendation algorithm not only predicts what users might like – it also controls their listening habits.

But is this level of personalization good for the music – or for the listeners? Critics argue that Spotify’s algorithmic curation contributes to the homogenization of tastes. By prioritizing familiarity and engagement, the platform risks limiting exposure to diverse genres and niche artists.

The rise of “playlistification,” where songs are grouped by mood rather than by artist or album, reflects this shift. While seamless recognition captivates users, it commodifies music and reduces complex compositions to functional background noise. For all its charm, Wrapped underlines this trend by celebrating the hours spent exploring in depth.

“Everything I know about music” – What happens next?

Essentially, Spotify Wrapped offers a unique opportunity for self-discovery. Its digital journey can help listeners better understand their personality traits and the conscious – or subconscious – way they rely on music in daily life.

By downloading and analyzing Spotify listening history or filling out a music questionnaire, music lovers can discover surprising insights akin to a therapy session. Remembering favorite songs can evoke nostalgia and reunite listeners with their teenage selves. Along the way, they might also reflect on how their place of origin has shaped their musical preferences and overall identity.

Still, Wrapped raises deeper questions about autonomy, diversity, and the influence of algorithms in shaping what we hear. When the 2025 edition arrives, listeners should enjoy it – but they may also consider going beyond the curated playlists. Attending a local concert, exploring an unfamiliar genre, or immersing yourself in music far outside your comfort zone can be just as rewarding.

Because ultimately, musical identity isn’t just about what we listen to – it’s about how and why we engage with it.