Apple Music’s Year in Review vs. Spotify Wrapped

Chaim Gartenberg, writing last week for The Verge:

Spotify has been eating Apple’s lunch for years now with Wrapped, which has practically become its own internet holiday each year. And yet, it took Apple four full years to even launch its bare-bones Replay feature, which debuted in 2019 and hasn’t been meaningfully updated since. (I’ve been using kludged together Smart Playlists on iTunes for years to try to poorly replicate the Spotify experience.)

2021 is no exception, with Spotify offering what feels like its most lavish recaps yet. My wife (who is a Spotify user) spent the morning showing off her bespoke playlist to me, which included (among other things) specially curated songs for specific moods, rankings of where she placed among global Doja Cat listeners, a color-changing “audio aura,” and an interactive quiz. All of it is designed to be shared and shown off on other social media platforms.

I’m a bit surprised Apple hasn’t upped its year-in-review game for Apple Music, for the simple reason Gartenberg cites: Spotify Wrapped gets a ton of authentic social media action each year. Me, personally, I still wouldn’t care a whit about it. My music taste is old and boring — I neither need to be reminded of what I liked this year, nor want to share it. But it’s quite obvious that many people — especially younger people, whose tastes actually do reflect popular trends in new music — absolutely love it.

★ Wednesday, 8 December 2021