In late November each year, a common thread of content appears once again on many people’s social media platforms. A flaunt of your favorite artists, albums, songs, and the number of minutes you listen to music becomes both a show-off competition and an exciting look into your friends’ and followers’ musical tastes. Spotify, a popular music streaming platform, releases each streamer’s listening statistics annually, which prompts curiosity among other users.
As the number one streaming platform globally, Spotify surpassed a record-breaking 200 million paid subscribers in 2022. As of 2023, they acquired 220 million premium subscribers and over 574 million active listeners. This past year, the top artists of all global users were Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, and Peso Pluma, respectively. Overall, the average number of minutes listened to per user was 3,695 worldwide. When collecting data of the Ipswich High School’s senior class Spotify Wrapped, of those who were surveyed, it turns out we relate and differ from various aspects of the national Spotify wrapped data.
I asked the senior class of Ipswich High School various questions about their musical preferences, including who their top artist of 2023 was, what their top song was, and how many minutes they spent listening to their favorite tunes. Out of 40 seniors, the average number of minutes they listened to music was 33,785.56, over nine times as much as the global average. Most of the responses were in the 10,000 to 50,000-minute range; however, this set had high and low outliers. The minimum number of minutes spent listening to music was only 296.
The maximum, on the contrary, was a whopping 176,431 minutes, which is over 122 days spent listening to music in one year. Moreover, our top artist was, unsurprisingly, Taylor Swift, with 35% of respondents having her as their utmost artist. Lastly, there was a wide variety of top songs for the class of 2024, but one specific song stood out as the only song that was repeatedly mentioned in the responses. Cardigan by Taylor Swift held the title of favorite song for some people.
When interviewing a couple of the respondents to get a deeper look into their Spotify Wrapped, their individual responses were very similar to that of the senior classes as a whole. The first senior was Charlotte Donahue, whose foremost artist of 2023 was Taylor Swift. She listened to about 20,000 minutes of music this past year, which was “less than I expected for me, considering how often I feel like I am listening to music.” Like Charlotte, the second student interviewed, Harper Rees, also shares a joy for listening to music, especially that of Taylor Swift. Harper spent over 25,000 minutes listening to music this past year. When asked when she listens to her music, she states, “mainly during car rides, whether it’s the 2-minute drive to school or a longer road trip. I also find myself listening to music when doing schoolwork or studying for a test, as it helps me concentrate on my work”.
Many people bond with others over their taste in music, specifically at the end of the year when Spotify makes it public. Discovering what your school peers listen to, and how often they listen can be a way to make connections with others. Overall, Ipswich High School seniors listen to various genres, artists, and songs, but many people share more in common through music than you might think.
