For many, music tastes can be a fairly personal and charged topic. This means that Spotify’s yearly recap feature, Spotify Wrapped, has provoked some pretty aggravated responses from users on social media—whether because they were told their favorite music wasn’t what they expected, or that their listening age was well into retirement territory.
Now, Spotify has rolled out new data explaining exactly how its Wrapped picks are compiled to clear up any confusion.
In a blog post, Spotify explains that Top Songs are ranked by the total number of listens. For Wrapped, a “listen” is only counted when a song has been played for more than 30 seconds. This means that if you’re quickly skipping a song on an album, or get bored after a track’s intro, it’s unlikely to make your end-of-year list. Spotify also explained how it deals with song length in its calculations. The platform counts one stream as one listen, regardless of the song’s length. This means that a two-minute jingle counts just as much toward the ultimate rankings as a full listen to a ten-minute musical odyssey.
Top Artists, in contrast, are treated differently, using what Spotify calls a “weighted stream count.” This means that your top artist for the year might not account for any of your Top Songs if your listening is spread out across multiple songs by that artist rather than concentrated on a few favorites.
Top Albums are calculated differently from tracks or artists. Spotify says it counts an album listen if you’ve streamed the majority of its tracks. This could be from within the album page itself, from playlists, or from any other place on Spotify. Spotify calculates the album score based not only on the total number of streams but also on “how evenly your listening was distributed across the album,” saying this method “best surfaces the albums that truly resonated with you.”
Recommended by Our Editors
“Even with the same underlying data, rankings can be created in many different ways,” said a Spotify spokesperson. They explained that each “data story” uses the metric “that makes the most sense for that specific narrative,” which is why some picks highlight total streams while others emphasize minutes listened.
It’s unlikely we’re set to see the end of Spotify Wrapped-style recap features anytime soon. Even organizations far away from the music streaming business, like Wikipedia, have rolled out comparable recap tools during 2025.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
Sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to receive the latest news, best new products, and expert advice from the editors of PCMag.
Sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to receive the latest news, best new products, and expert advice from the editors of PCMag.
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
About Our Expert
Experience
I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.
I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.
Read Full Bio
