Some students who worked to get their favorite artist to the top of their Spotify Wrapped are satisfied with the results, while others said they suspect the stats were rigged.
A popular music streaming app among students, Spotify publishes year-end statistics on which artists and songs users listened to most that year. The list is known as Spotify Wrapped.
For first-year social work student Harry Ledford, punk rock band Green Day has been at the top of his Spotify Wrapped results “pretty much every year. They’ve been a favorite band since probably second grade, which is a long time. … You know, in a way, Green Day has been there for me.”
Ledford added: “Seeing the top artist … kind of emphasizes how that year kind of went, in a way, and how the year sounded.”
Second-year nursing student Miso Gil also said she pushed her favorite artist, rapper NF, to the top of her stats by playing the music over and over because she can “relate to a lot of his songs.”
First-year transfer studies student Betsy Leveron admitted to doing the same thing for Alex Graham of Divide Music, who writes songs inspired by anime and superhero movies.
“It’s because my artist is not the most mainstream artist in the world,” Leveron said. “He’s got a pretty small following, so for me … it’s my little bit of helping him and supporting him in what he does.”
“I’m a little proud, like, ‘OK, I did that,’” Leveron said.
Playing favorite artists over and over just to bump them to the top of the list might not be the best way to support their music, music professor Douglas Byerly said.
“Who actually benefits from that?” Byerly said. “Spotify and the record companies … because the artists are getting such little dividends and such little proportion of the revenue.”
Instead, Byerly encourages students to “go to a concert, go hear some live music” to support their favorite musicians.
Some students said they believe Spotify included songs and artists in their Wrapped that they barely listen to.
Second-year radiology student Dalia Jarrar, whose top band is alternative metal group Sleep Theory, said she “was a little disappointed” in this year’s Spotify Wrapped results.
“I feel like … my songs didn’t really make sense,” Jarrar said. “I know for a fact that a lot of the songs that are on [my Spotify Wrapped] are songs that aren’t even on my playlist.”
Third-year creative writing and psychology student Zoë Sharp, whose top artist is indie-rock singer Mitski, agreed Spotify Wrapped was disappointing, but not because of the results.
“This version of Spotify Wrapped really fails in comparison to previous years, especially when you think of, like, all of the fun features that have been in previous Spotify Wrapped,” Sharp said. “It’s making me reconsider if I want to use Spotify as my music platform.”
