If you’ve been on social media lately, you’ve likely seen music fans posting about Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, and/or the all-new YouTube Music My Year in Review. The features of the respective platforms are available at the end of the year and give users a way to look back at their listening habits for the last 12 months, give or take. Think of it as the user’s personal version of the Billboard Charts for the entire year, curated and presented to them.
Giving music lovers a way to reflect on the music they’ve listened to most during the year is not only a nice end-of-year touch but can also give them insights and ideas for their listening going forward. Spotify and Apple have been offering this to users for a while with their Wrapped and Music Replay features. Now, YouTube is following in their footsteps, having introduced the YouTube Music My Year in Review tool to this effect.
This sort of feature has proved popular and been widely discussed on social media, with people sharing screenshots of their most listened to songs of the year. It’s evident that the successes of Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay are what inspired YouTube to also explore the idea. For users of YouTube Music, it’s most welcome.
Wrapped Vs. Music Replay Vs. Year in Review
While all three products revolve around the same fundamental idea, there are considerable differences in interface, information provided, and level of detail. Spotify was the first to come up with the idea, initially calling it ‘Spotify Year in Review’ in 2017. Following calls by Apple Music users for a similar feature, Apple introduced Music Replay in 2019.
One of the distinct features of Spotify Wrapped is its engaging graphics and visual presentation. The interface is very colorful and replete with slick animation. Apple Music Replay, meanwhile, employs a vertical scrolling format for users to move through their stats, which is simple and clean if a little basic. YouTube Music’s My Year in Review is really just a selection of branded playlists, so there’s little in the way of design to delve into.
Similarly, the data that Spotify Wrapped presents is much more in-depth compared to the other two. Apple Music Replay displays the user’s top songs, albums, artists of the year, time spent listening to each song, and frequency of listens, as well as a few other details, while the main YouTube Music My Year in Review playlist is simply a compilation of a user’s most listened songs of the year with no accompanying stats. But Spotify Wrapped goes beyond that to walk the user through a range of analytics — everything from top songs, top artists, and top albums to where they rank among listeners of certain artists, when they first listened to a top song, and podcasts they’ve “marathoned”.
In addition to the most granular level of detail it has ever provided, Spotify Wrapped has also introduced elements like badges for the type of listener a user is, quizzes about their own listening habits, and a ‘Missed Hits’ playlist with songs similar to those they have been listening to. It’s by far and away the most sophisticated of the end-of-year reviews. However, Apple Music Replay has started making inroads into providing a more fully-loaded competitor and YouTube Music surely won’t want to be left too far behind now it’s involved. These review features have become very popular among music lovers, so we can expect to see them all become bigger, better, and more eye-catching.
