Spotify Wrapped Is Out: Here’s How To Access It—As Taylor Swift Reigns As Top Artist

Topline

Spotify began rolling out its highly anticipated Wrapped year-in-review package to users Wednesday morning, ending the longest wait for the feature in years, including new features powered by artificial intelligence that recap a user’s listening habits.

Key Facts

Who Were Spotify’s Biggest Global Artists This Year?

Billionaire pop star Taylor Swift reigned as Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally for the second year in a row, and her blockbuster album “The Tortured Poets Department” was the year’s most-streamed album. Swift had three of the top 10 most-streamed albums this year: Her 2023 re-recorded album, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” ranked No. 6, while her five-year-old project “Lover” ranked No. 8. Behind Swift, The Weeknd was this year’s second-most-streamed artist, followed by Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish. Sabrina Carpenter’s summer smash “Espresso” was the most-streamed song this year, followed by Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” FloyyMenor and Cris Mj’s “Gata Only” and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control.” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ song “Die With A Smile” was this year’s most “viral” song, Spotify said, meaning it was shared to social platforms more than any other song.

Who Were Spotify’s Biggest U.s. Artists In 2024?

Swift also claimed the top artist and album spot in the United States, while “Espresso” was the biggest song, though country and hip-hop artists fared much better in the U.S. than worldwide. Country star Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing At A Time” was the second-biggest album in the United States this year, and his song “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone was the No. 4 biggest song. Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” was the second-biggest song in the United States, followed by Shaboozey’s record-breaking country hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” After Swift, Drake was the second biggest artist, followed by country stars Zach Bryan and Wallen, and rappers Kanye West, Future, Lamar and Travis Scott.

What Were This Year’s Biggest Podcasts?

For the fifth year in a row, podcasting mogul Joe Rogan’s “Joe Rogan Experience” was the most-streamed podcast on Spotify both globally and in the United States, even after Rogan ended his exclusivity deal with Spotify earlier this year. Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy,” popular among women listeners, ranked as the second-biggest podcast worldwide and in the United States. Comedian Theo Von’s podcast ranked No. 3 in the U.S. this year, followed by true crime show “Crime Junkie” and the New York Times’ “The Daily.” Many of the top podcasts played a large role in the presidential election. President-elect Donald Trump spoke with four of the top 10 podcasters in the final months of his campaign: Rogan, Von, Tucker Carlson and Shawn Ryan. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Cooper, and she and Rogan reportedly could not agree to conditions for an interview.

Tangent

Social media users have frequently joked they wait until Spotify stops tracking their data so they can safely listen to music they’d be embarrassed by if it ended up in their Spotify Wrapped. More than 200,000 users liked an X post last week from a user who said her Spotify Wrapped is “going to be so embarrassing this year,” and last year, the Washington Post referred to November and December as “cheat months” where users can listen to holiday music and show tunes safely without fear of them popping up on Spotify Wrapped.

Key Background

Spotify began its Wrapped marketing campaign in 2016, and began issuing Instagram Story-shareable graphics to users as part of their Wrapped packages in 2019. The Wrapped campaign has been a huge marketing hit for the streaming platform: Spotify said more than 156 million users accessed their Wrapped package in 2022, up from 120 million the year prior. Social media analytics company SproutSocial found 400 million posts had been made about Spotify Wrapped on X in the three days following its 2022 release, up 15% from the year before. Spotify typically unveils new features for the Wrapped campaign each year. In last year’s edition, each user was assigned a “sound town,” a city that matches their music taste, leading to viral jokes on social media that Burlington, Vermont, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, may be home to large communities of queer artists and LGBTQ listeners. In 2022, listeners were assigned listening personality types based on the Meyers-Briggs personality test.

Further Reading

Spotify Wrapped 2023 Comes Soon: Here’s How It Became A Viral And Widely Copied Marketing Tactic (Forbes)

Spotify Wrapped ‘Sound Towns’: Social Media Has Theories About Why You Got Assigned Berkeley Or Burlington (Forbes)