Spotify Wrapped is almost here. Here's when the yearly recap will likely hit your phone

Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer
·3 min read

The most wonderful time of the year is just about here, the time when you get to flex your superior music taste to all your friends and family.

That's right: it's almost Spotify Wrapped season, as Spotify users get to share their personalized listening history from 2023, "wrapped up" in a set of Instagram-worthy graphics.

So when will this year's Spotify Wrapped release to everyone's phone? And is there an equivalent for Apple Music users?

Here's everything you need to know about the viral campaign.

When does Spotify Wrapped 2023 come out?

The platform has yet to announce when it plans to release Spotify Wrapped 2023. Based on previous years, the feature is usually released on Dec. 1 or Dec. 2.

However, Spotify Wrapped 2022 came out Nov. 30.

Does Spotify Wrapped include listening data from January through December?

Surprisingly, no. The platform has previously confirmed to numerous news outlets, as well as on Twitter, that Spotify Wrapped only collects data from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31.

Spotify Wrapped usually comes out Dec. 1 or Dec. 2.
Spotify Wrapped usually comes out Dec. 1 or Dec. 2.

What is Spotify Wrapped?

The idea behind Spotify Wrapped came in 2015, when the mega-popular music platform released its Year in Music feature, allowing users to see which artists they listened to most over the previous 365 days. The Year in Music campaign shared much of the same data Spotify Wrapped does, including listeners' most played songs and how many hours of music they listened to in total.

The feature got a major face-lift the following year, though, complete with the new Spotify Wrapped name. The marketing campaign has also seemingly become more and more viral each year, as Spotify ups its graphic design and data personalization game.

In 2018, Spotify included data about the astrological signs of the artists a user listened to most during the year. In 2019, Spotify Wrapped adopted an Instagram Story format, allowing users to easily share (or show off) their highly-curated listening history to their social media stories. In 2020, the platform included podcast-listening data.

In last year's Spotify Wrapped, new information about how a listener's "musical mood" changed throughout the day was added. And only time will tell what new, quirky data will appear as part of users' 2023 Spotify Wrapped portfolios.

On Nov. 29 last year, Apple Music announced its version of Spotify's end-of-year campaign called Apple Music Replay.
On Nov. 29 last year, Apple Music announced its version of Spotify's end-of-year campaign called Apple Music Replay.

Does Apple Music have an end-of-year feature?

On Nov. 29 last year, Apple Music announced its version of Spotify's end-of-year campaign called Apple Music Replay. Apple's feature includes much of the same listening data as Spotify's, including a user's top songs, top albums, top artists and top genres from throughout the year.

Apple Music Replay functions a bit differently than Spotify Wrapped in that it's a permanent feature in the Apple Music app, and it updates weekly throughout the year.

Apple Music users can access their Replay by locating the Listen Now tab in the app, scrolling to the Replay section, tapping the Replay ’23 playlist and then selecting the plus button in the top right. After that, Apple Music users can check out their Replay '23 throughout the year in the Playlists section of their library.

Similar to Spotify, Apple Music users will also receive a big Replay '23 roundup in December designed to share to social media.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Spotify Wrapped 2023: When does it stop counting? When is the release?