Spotify Wrapped is a tool that tallies up users’ most listened to songs of the year. On Thursday the company released this data to all of its subscribers so they can share and view their friends’ musical preferences. As the playlists filled social media threads, Apple Music users were pretty jealous.
That’s because the Cupertino-based company’s music streaming service doesn’t provide the same kind of year-end feature, leading droves of Apple Music subscribers to take to Reddit to voice their gripes. But amongst all of the salty comments, one shining iOS hero emerged: App developer Lucas Klein, who took it upon himself to create an Apple Music version of Spotify Wrapped called snd.wave. In an interview with Inverse he explained how it’s even more comprehensive than Spotify’s version.
“I tried to put my own spin on it,” he says via a Reddit message. “Spotify’s feature is more of a marketing tool, snd.wave is a platform for music stats, and I think my next update 2.0 will establish that further snd.wave has more features and can show more stats than Spotify’s version.”
In Klein’s view, Spotify’s tool is essentially a flashy, data-driven slideshow, whereas snd.wave is meant to be more of a hub that lets you see every detail about your Apple Music library and listening habits. For example, you can see how many minutes you’ve listened to a particular artist or subgenre regardless of whether or not they’re your rankings. Plus, it’s also easier to share your results.
The stats are also updated every week, so you have constantly fresh data about your music habits at your fingertips, too. No need to wait until the end of the year to see how many times you’ve listened to Ariana Grande’s “thank you, next.”
As Apple Music users tried to join in on the playlist party, Klein’s app quickly became a hit, garnering 14,000 downloads on Thursday alone. That’s an incredible spike considering that it averaged 800 weekly downloads since he first coded the app in 2017. He also revealed that the second version of snd.wave is in the works and that it should hit the App Store during the first week of January.
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Unlike the plethora of comments complaining about Apple not rolling out its own version of Spotify Wrapped, Klein see this as an opportunity for the community to get involved.
“I think it’s smart on Apple’s part,” he said. “Firstly it leaves a space open for people like me to innovate. Secondly, Apple doesn’t have to spend time supporting it, which could cost them a lot of money.”
You can download the current version of snd.wave in the App Store now, and start pulling your Spotify-like stats.
The 2010’s are coming to an end, and soon we’ll be living in a new iteration of the “roaring ’20s.” (Will jazz become the predominant genre again? Only time will tell.) Whether the past ten years feel like they’ve flown or crept by, you’ve surely experienced a decade’s worth of change and growth. You may even be reminiscing with pictures of how you and your loved ones have matured or “glowed-up” throughout the years. But what about your listening habits?
From 2010 to 2019, you’ve likely discovered new tunes and podcasts, fallen back in love with old favorites, and maybe even grown to enjoy a new genre or two. That’s why this year, we’re not only bringing back your annual personalized “Spotify Wrapped,” but we’re also showcasing our users’ listening throughout the last decade.
That means this year, your Wrapped will include the songs, albums, artists, and podcasts you discovered throughout 2019, plus the artists you streamed the most throughout the decade on Spotify. It’s “Wrapped” the way you love it—but with more nostalgia than ever before.
Plus this year, for the first time ever, you can view your Wrapped right when you log in to your Spotify app—or head to spotify.com/wrapped. Once you’re in, you’ll discover your top artist, top song through each season, top podcasts, genres, total minutes streamed in 2019.
This year, we’re also showing how global your listening is by highlighting where some of your top artists hail from on a world map. Spotify users who have been with us for at least two years will get a personalized recap highlighting their top artist and total minutes streamed throughout the decade, as well as top artist and song for each year. Then, relive your top tracks in a personalized playlist, or take a look at the most-streamed songs on Spotify this year and throughout the decade.
Spotify Premium users will even get to go a little deeper, with access to additional personalized data stories and insights about their year in listening that includes the number of artists they discovered and the top artist they discovered this year.
Premium and Free users alike can share the results with friends, family, and followers through Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or Facebook with a personalized “2019 Wrapped” or “My Decade Wrapped” share card. These are complete with a summary of your top tracks, artists, and genre from their listening history on Spotify.
This year, artists and podcasters can also simply log into their Spotify for Artists or Spotify for Podcasters page to discover how their music and podcasts connected with fans across the world in 2019 Artist “Wrapped” and the brand-new 2019 Podcaster “Wrapped.” If you had three listeners before October 31st, a Wrapped experience is waiting for you—even if you still need to claim your Spotify for Artist or Spotify for Podcaster account.
2019 Artist “Wrapped” is a destination specifically for artists to discover how their music connected with fans across the world. Artists and their teams will receive a custom personalized Spotify “Wrapped” experience where they learn facts about their fan listening throughout the year including total fan hours streamed, highest number of fan streams per hour, percentage increase in followers and other metrics such as the country in which listening grew the most, the number of fans that had the artist as their number one artist, and more. The 2019 Artist “Wrapped” share card, which can also be shared on social media, will include their fans’ total streams, hours, listeners, and countries for the year.
For the first time ever, Podcasters will get their own “Wrapped” experience, accessible through Spotify for Podcasters. Podcasters and their teams can find facts about their show’s growth and audience’s preferences, including the top episodes, year over year gains in followers, top country for audience growth, number of fans with their show as their top podcast, the four related podcasts their fans also listen to, and more. The shareable 2019 Podcaster “Wrapped” share card will include the total number of episodes produced, the total number of hours produced and podcasters’ top two countries.
As we reach the end of the decade, we’re excited to give our users—listeners, artists, and podcasters—a look back on the past ten years in music and culture. So open up your Spotify app or head to spotify.com/wrapped to see how you’ve been at the center of it all.
Spotify Wrapped Via App
There’s been so much good music in the past ten years, so we’ve put together our own Playlist of the Decade. What’s on yours?