Spotify Wrapped Reveals Surprising ‘Listening Ages’ of Users

NEW YORK, NY — Spotify Wrapped, the popular annual recap from the streaming service, has unveiled a new feature that surprises users by revealing their ‘listening age.’ This year, users are discovering that their musical preferences often reflect ages significantly older or younger than their actual age.

The company released its year-end report on December 4, showcasing users’ most-streamed artists, albums, and genres. Among the highlights this year is the controversial ‘listening age,’ calculated based on the music users have engaged with over the past year.

For instance, Charli XCX, a well-known electro-pop artist, has a listening age attributed to her musical preferences for tracks from the late 1960s. Other surprising revelations include Grimes, whose listening age stands at 92, while Gracie Abrams, a rising singer-songwriter, was found to have a listening age close to half her real age. In a light-hearted response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared that his listening age is 44.

As soon as the feature went live, social media buzzed with users sharing screenshots and memes, many feeling amused or confused by their assigned listening ages. This year’s Spotify Wrapped also humorously assigned geographical locations like Burlington, Vermont, or Jakarta, Indonesia, as part of the interactive feature.

Marcus Collins, a professor at the University of Michigan, explained that listening age serves as a way to project identity through cultural consumption. He noted, “It creates another identity project force, another shock to the system for us to talk about.”

Spotify aims to identify listeners’ ‘reminiscence bumps,’ or periods when they were especially connected to music, usually between ages 16 and 21. “If you listen to way more music from the late 1970s than others your age, we playfully hypothesize that your listening age is 63 today,” Spotify explained.

Collins acknowledged that this strategy not only serves as an engaging marketing tool for Spotify but simultaneously fosters social interaction among users. “The truth of the matter is, it’s both of them at the same time,” he said, emphasizing that it spurs conversations based on unexpected listening preferences.

Spotify assures that its slides are meant to be accurate and reflective while maintaining an air of mystery. As more users share their results, the addictive quality of comparing listening ages promises to keep the conversation going long into the new year.