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The year is coming to a close, which means music streaming services drop their annual listening round-ups.
Spotify Wrapped has become an annual tradition, often dominating conversations on social media at the end of the year, though Spotify's top competitors, Apple Music and YouTube Music, have also created listening recaps for their users.
Spotify Wrapped 2022
On Wednesday, November 30, Spotify released the 2022 Wrapped statistics, where users can view their year in music—from how many minutes they've listened to in the last year to data on their top songs, artists, genres and podcasts.
In the past, Spotify Wrapped has also created blended playlists between friends, interactive games, and "aura" visualizations of their music taste. This year, Wrapped is showing users their "Listening Personality."
Spotify also released data that showcases the top artists, songs, podcasts, and albums streamed collectively between the 456 million listeners around the world. This year, it was revealed that "As It Was" by Harry Styles was the most-streamed song of 2022, with more than 1.6 billion streams globally this year.
In the second and third spots are "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals and for the second year running, "STAY (with Justin Bieber)" by The Kid LAROI.
Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny has also become the first artist to top Spotify's most-streamed artist list three years in a row.
Users are able to access their Wrapped experience on the Spotify app and share their personalized music data with friends on social media, and the recap has become a widely popular subject of discussion when it comes out, so it is no surprise that other streaming services have also developed ways of sharing their users' listening habits.
Apple Music Replay 2022
Much like Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music has revealed its Replay experience, which Axios named a "direct competitor to Wrapped."
On Tuesday, the streaming service released the Replay, where users can find a personalized highlight reel of their top songs, artists, genres, and total minutes listened on the platform's website, just like Spotify.
Apple Music Replay received a major update this year as well, having launched in 2019 as custom-made playlists for its users, but not showcasing much more than that.
On the Replay, fans that are in the top 100 of an artist or genre will be able to see their standing, and users can track changes in their listening habits from now until December 31st.
Like Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music also released its end-of-the-year listening data, sharing that The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber's "Stay" was number one on the global song chart in 2022 on Apple Music.
"We Don't Talk About Bruno" from Disney's Encanto topped the Most Read Lyrics chart, and "Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)" by Elton John and Dua Lipa was front and center on the Shazam chart, which tracked which songs were searched on Shazam the most. Bad Bunny was named Apple Music's 2022 Artist of the Year.
YouTube Music Recap 2022
On the same day that Apple Music dropped its Replay, YouTube Music released its 2022 Recap feature, another end-of-the-year summary for those who use the platform.
Unlike its 2018 attempt with YouTube Rewind, YouTube Music recap allows users to get seasonal round-ups all year long, though its 2022 Recap encapsulates users' listening habits over the entire year.
Much like the other two services, YouTube creates custom playlists combining users' top artists, albums, and songs from 2022, and can show you your "music personality" and personalized cards and graphics showcasing your top listening trends. It also includes summaries of your favorite live performances and remixes and allows users to upload images from their Google Photos to really customize the highlights to their lives.
And no matter which music service you use, each of the music recaps is made for sharing on social media, so share away!
Newsweek reached out to Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music for comment.
About the writer
Emma Mayer is a Newsweek Culture Writer based in Wyoming. Her focus is reporting on celebrities, books, movies, and music. ... Read more