JUNE 2021

Every year, sometime in early December, the Spotify Wrapped for that year is released. It’s a fairly new addition to Spotify’s collection and presentation of your user data, and the most marketed feature is assuredly the playlist it creates with the top 50 or so songs you played the most that year, with the most played song at the top and the 50th most at the bottom. People can normally reflect on the year as a whole based on the top ten, five or even number one track, depending on how often you listen to music and whether or not your taste in music shifts depending on your mood. For example, my 2016 Spotify Wrapped playlist (which I believe was the year the feature was released) was the year I left secondary school, and so features a great amount of party quote unquote “anthems”, with Call on Me by Eric Prydz in third, as well as Good Times by Chic and The Sound by The 1975 in the top 20. It also features a lot of Kanye West, as his album The Life of Pablo was released in February of that year, so the singles, as well as other tracks dominate the lower parts of the playlist. My first year of university saw me listen to a lot of funk music, which is borne out within the playlist, as is the highly-anticipated-but-ultimately-disappointing J Cole album KOD. 

The idea for these playlists is great, and the fact that the playlists exist years after they are released to you means you can document a sort of musical taste progression, or just memorialise your favourite tunes, encapsulated in the year you either first heard them or played them the most. However, my favourite part of Spotify Wrapped is not the playlists or hearing the songs I’d heard many times that year once more. I am much more enthralled by the second part of the breakdown – the number of minutes spent listening to Spotify in that year. 

I listen to music every day, with breaks for sleeping, some for working, and also when I’m out with friends or family. Music is so firmly a part of my daily life that I always make sure I leave the house with my headphones on, and I’m almost always seen in public with them either in my ears or around my neck when I need to hear what people are saying to me. While I know in terms of competitive value, either racing or competing with people for how many minutes of music they listen to in a year is too wide ranging in terms of time to keep track of while also being so niche in terms of subject matter to be considered interesting, this realisation has not deterred me from attempting to beat my previous year’s record as the years go on. 

For example, in 2017 I listened to around 30,000 minutes over the year. That’s about 21 days, rounding up, of nonstop music playing. Almost 3 weeks total, 0.06% of a calendar year and 0.0006% of a century. It’s definitely not bad, but I could do better. In a calendar year there are 525,600 minutes, and I’d listened to 5.70% of that. I hadn’t even cracked double digit percentages! Shameful. 

The next year I had decided on a goal ahead of time. I would attempt to crack 50,000 minutes. 2018 would be a good year as by the end I would double my listening time. 50,000 seemed big, but also doable. I was a fresher in 2017, so I spent a lot of time going out and meeting new people, so didn’t really have a lot of time to commit to pursuing my imaginary goal, completing the non-challenge I’d set myself. However, despite my best efforts, 2018’s dramatic escalation in terms of university difficulty meant that I finished the year on 49,288 minutes. Agonisingly close to 50k, but just edged out. I hardened my resolve, I had a year abroad on the horizon, which meant at least two long flights, as well as trips into Munich on trains and buses where headphones would become essential travelling partners. I was determined to bring on 2019 as soon as possible, so I could enjoy my year abroad and, as a positive by-product, better my record on Spotify. The improvement was massive, and by the end of 2019 I had racked up a whopping 86,747 minutes on Spotify. Achieving 79% more minutes than the previous year was staggering, and I had smashed the 50,000 goal I’d set myself, as well as the possible future goals of 75k and 85k. There’s no doubt in my mind that shift work as well as long hours in the office both were positive influences on my Spotify minutes, and also my frequent trips in and around the city of Munich exploring with my trusty headphones on. The number itself was crazy too – I’d listened to the equivalent of 60 days of nonstop music, or two months, or 0.2% of a calendar year, or even 0.0002% of a century. I knew I had to hit 100,000 minutes the next year – I’d eclipsed any other possible milestones too early and hitting triple digits would be the next best step to take. 

Unfortunately, another missed opportunity arrived, as in the most recent Wrapped, for 2020, I hit 95,271 minutes. To be only 5000 minutes off my goal was gutting, but it was still a marked improvement on my previous year. No doubt this was due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and one of the consequences of being unable to leave the house is that I tended to listen to a lot more music. So, there it is - The thinnest silver lining of the worldwide global pandemic is that it more than likely propelled me to hitting my goal of 100,000 minutes. Of course, if that hypothesis is true, then when on December 3rd this year my next Wrapped comes out we should have easily cracked the triple-digit-milestone, and be well on our way to hitting four, five or even six digits of minutes. 

(Just kidding)