That’s a wrap: What Spotify got right and wrong about me in my 2025 Wrapped

It’s the end of the year — and with that comes something we didn’t ask for but certainly obsess over — our Spotify Wrapped report.

Each year, we come across screenshot-flooded Instagram stories and group chats turning into competitive confessionals. Before you know it, everyone is suddenly a top 0.5-per-cent listener of some niche and emotionally alarming music.

People get to discover something new about themselves every winter — and 2025’s Spotify Wrapped is no exception.

This year, Wrapped feels slightly different, with a slicker, cheekier, self-awaking vibe, delivering laughter and mild existential dread in equal measure.

The 2025 Wrapped layout is really appealing at the first glance. The zebra theme brought out curiosity and was visually appealing and colourful.

However, it also felt a bit rushed. Compared to previous Wrapped reports, this year it felt like Spotify was dragging us along instead of inviting us to sit with our memories and moments.

Somewhere between denial and acceptance, my top artists exposed me early on. Drake was unsurprisingly there, narrating my late-night thoughts like a therapist who only communicates in rap lyrics. Taylor Swift followed closely behind, reminding me that no matter how much I grow, I will always emotionally over-identify with a bridge. Sabrina Carpenter added playful pop delusion, while Billie Eilish delivered quiet existential spirals and Adele felt like an emotional support blanket — because, clearly, healing is not linear.

The talk of the town was the newly added age-estimation feature, which perfectly sums up this year’s Wrapped — funny but slightly insulting.

Spotify decided I’m 84 years old, likely caused by my listening to songs from the late ‘50s. This was unasked for, but considering how my year has been and the people I’ve spent most of my time with — cough, cough, millennials — I’m not surprised.

Overall, this new feature sparked conversations, memes, and mild identity crises, which was probably exactly what Spotify wanted.What made my Wrapped funnier was what didn’t show up. Despite my recent attempts at upgrading my music taste, there was no rave or electronic music in my top five. No techno era, no house phase — just Spotify confidently choosing songs I’ve been listening to for years, as if personal growth does not apply to algorithms.

It felt like my Wrapped knew my past extremely well but refused to acknowledge my present. Drake’s introspective bars sat comfortably next to emotional pop and alternative ballads, creating a playlist that felt less like who I am now and more like who I have been for the last few years. It was as if Spotify told me “No, actually, this is who you are.” 

I think previous years’ Wrappeds were much better than this one, considering how they excelled at storytelling, tracking genre shifts, identifying eras of our year, and showing how our moods evolved over time. For a platform that arguably knows us better than our close friends, Spotify’s 2025 Wrapped felt like it’s just short of saying something meaningful. Did it deliver quick humour? Yes. Did it feel like an intimate read of my music taste? Less so.

Let’s not forget last year’s experimentation with AI-generated narrations was notably absent this time around. It felt like Spotify quietly shelved the concept instead of refining it.

One element that continues to shine each year are the video messages from users’ top streamed artists. Even though those clips are clearly pre-recorded and mass distributed, it still lands emotionally to hear a musician thanking their listeners.

Compared to Apple Music’s Replay, which feels more like a spreadsheet than a celebration or summary of our year in music, Spotify stands out and understands that connection matters more than accuracy.

The big question is what could Spotify improve for next year? First off, it could offer optional deeper analytics for users who want them, allowing us to see things like frequently skipped songs, our late night go-tos, and shifts in our emotional states based on what tunes we’re listening to in a given month.

It could also play around again with narration and more interactive features. Safe is fine, but Wrapped shines when it’s bold. Some ideas could be allowing us to change themes to our Wrappeds or creating an option where we can build our own Wrapped report manually to share with friends and family. 

To wrap it up, love it or cringe at it, Spotify’s 2025 Wrapped has proved — once again — that streaming apps know us disturbingly well and keep us coming back for more. Is that terrifying? Yes. Comforting? Maybe.

I’ll see you next year when I’ll be 85 years old. Until then, let’s keep listening, vibing, and quietly judging our music taste.