December brings many exciting things: snow days, winter break, holidays, but let’s be honest, the most exciting part is sharing your Spotify Wrapped with your friends. On December 3rd, Spotify, released summaries of your listening habits throughout the year. Since its first release in 2016, Spotify Wrapped has been evolving to include more detailed summaries for their listeners. In more recent years, other music platforms have joined in. Amazon music has a “delivered” summary, and Apple music does a “replay”. Opinions on these results can vary, so let’s hear from some Millbrook students on their thoughts.
With over 700 million monthly listeners and 281 million premium members, it was no struggle to find Spotify listeners at Millbrook. Hazel Neugebauer, a sophomore, has recently switched to Spotify from Apple Music. She made the switch because it seemed everyone had Spotify and Apple Music seemed easier. Although she listened to over 17,000 minutes of music, she was disappointed in her year stats. She says that her music taste was not accurately represented and suspected that it might be because of her short-lived phases where she listened to one artist or song a lot. This seemed common with Spotify users. Jason Hughes, a life-long Spotify user, strongly replied, “No,” when asked if he agreed with his Spotify Wrapped. Similar to Neugebauer, he was disappointed with his top song because it was a song he listened to most in the beginning of the year and has since outgrown.
Spotify is not the only streaming service out there, though. Charlotte Wise, a sophomore at Millbrook and Apple Music user, listened to around 20,000 minutes of music and she says that her “Apple Music Replay” was mostly accurate. Stella Dady, a junior at Millbrook, switched in August to Apple Music from Spotify, giving her a unique perspective on the two. She says that she enjoyed the Apple Music Recap more than her Spotify Wrapped because of the in-depth monthly breakdown that Apple Music has. Overall, Dady’s results across the two platforms were very different and she believes that Apple music was better. Dady will continue to use Apple Music because of its unique features, like monthly breakdowns.
Sophomore Caroline Campbell is also very passionate about her listening. She says that Amazon Music is the only “correct option” to listen to music. Campbell loves all the perks of Amazon Music, especially its connection to Alexa devices so she can listen to her playlists when she’s just hanging out at home. Despite thinking her “Music Delivered” was mostly true, Campbell was surprised with her top song this year because she didn’t start listening to it until late 2025. Dez Sullivan, a junior at Millbrook was also disappointed in his summary. He says that although he was happy with his top song and artist, he was disappointed that the different genres he listens to were not represented in his results.
It seems that no matter where you listen to music, your opinions on your music summary can vary. However, everyone could agree on one thing: it’s more than a music summary. Jason Hughes said that music is like, “a collage of their personalities.” Music has become a large part of people’s lives. Most people listened to around 20,000 minutes this year, meaning they listened to over 6 hours every week. For something people spend so much time on, it makes sense that people love sharing their music and hearing about other people’s. Dez Sullivan compared it to social media because people use it to better connect. Caroline Campbell says that it can make you feel like a bigger fan of an artist if you listen to them a lot and you can see that on your summary. Whatever the reason, it’s fun to connect with people this way and share something so unique with someone else.
