As every December, streaming music platforms publish their lists with the artists, songs, and podcasts most listened to by users, but this recap of the favorite content during the year is increasingly being added to more services, such as video game platforms or even photo applications such as Google Photos.
Regarding music, some streaming platforms have already shared which songs and artists have been the most listened to during this year 2024 globally, highlighting some such as the composer of the album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Taylor Swift, the Canadian artist The Weeknd or the Puerto Rican Bad Bunny, according to Spotify data.
However, in order to know what the personal tastes of each user have been during the year on an individual level, the different streaming services and platforms offer their own tools to discover the annual rankings.
In addition to Spotify, this is the case for Apple Music and YouTube Music for music, as well as Xbox and PlayStation for video games. Even other applications such as Google Photos or social networks such as BeReal, offer functions to show a summary of user activity during the year. This is how you can access this information in each case.
THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE YEAR
Perhaps Spotify Wrapped is the best known by users. The platform has had this tool since 2016, when it began to show its users graphs about their listening habits for the year in the ‘app’, which can then be shared on other platforms such as Instagram or WhatsApp.
Specifically, Spotify Wrapped offers a summary of the activity that users have recorded between January 1, 2024 and a few weeks before December 4 of the same year. This summary includes a list of the five artists that users have listened to the most, as well as the five songs most played by them.
The company also provides more specific data, such as how many times the most listened to song has been played or what percentage the user is in relation to the listeners worldwide of a particular artist.
It also offers data such as the musical genres that subscribers have used the most, as well as the favourite playlists and podcasts. Spotify even indicates the total time spent listening to content on the app throughout the year and compares it with the percentage of the rest of the listeners in Spain. All of this in a completely personalised experience for each person.
To access it, simply start the Spotify application on your smartphone and select the ‘Wrapped’ button that appears on the home screen. After that, a series of stories will be displayed that will show the data for the year.
In addition to all the information that Spotify Wrapped offers, the platform also automatically creates personalised song lists with the users’ preferences for the year.
Similarly, Apple Music also has this annual recap option with ‘Replay’, a section that also includes the songs, artists and albums most played on this service throughout the year.
This function of the Apple service works in a very similar way to Spotify, sharing data such as the top most played songs, the total number of groups and musicians that have been listened to or the number of musical genres played in said account. All of this can be found in the Replay option, located on the home screen of the application.
Another of the platforms that offer this recap is YouTube Music. In this case, in addition to the artists and songs, metrics are also included about the video clips that users have played the most during the year.
Google’s streaming content platform includes personalized playlists and statistics that bring together the best songs, groups and podcasts based on the user’s listening history in the ‘app’.
To find these metrics, you must log in to the YouTube Music app and, in the user profile, click on the ‘Your Summary’ option. After that, you just have to click on ‘Get your summary’ to start viewing the data in story format, which can also be shared on other platforms.
However, as the company has detailed on its support page, it will be necessary to have accumulated at least ten hours of listening time on YouTube Music to be able to have the Recap, from January 1 to November 10 of each year.
It should also be noted that, for both the Apple Replay option and for Spotify Wrapped or YouTube Music Recap, users must have an account with a subscription to their services.
MOST PLAYED VIDEO GAMES DURING THE YEAR
On the other hand, it is not only streaming music platforms that have this type of service. Xbox also offers a review of how the year has been for users in relation to video games with personalized statistics.
Specifically, with Xbox’s ‘Year in Review’, the company collects the most memorable moments of the player, with information such as total game time, achievements achieved, preferred genres, the three titles that have been played the most and statistics within those games.
Likewise, as the company points out on its website, these statistics will be displayed with a personalized appearance based on the game that has remained the most played throughout 2024. In addition, in the case of players who have lived experiences in multiplayer format, they will be able to see which friends they shared the most game time with in the year.
To access the Xbox annual summary, you must access the Yearin Review page and log in. After that, the adventures of each player will be displayed on the screen, which can be shared “with a single click” through the mobile phone.
In the case of PlayStation, the Japanese video game company also offers its ‘Wrap-up’, which will be available from December 10 this year 2024, as the company has announced on its 30th anniversary page. This summary will include month-by-month game statistics, how many trophies have been earned and which have been the most played games, among other data.
OTHER RECAPITULATIONS OF 2024
In addition to all this, other services also offer their own recaps of the year. This is the case of Google Photos, which, starting this year, will offer a carousel-style summary of featured memories.
As detailed by Google on its support page, in addition to a video with the favorite photos taken by the user throughout the year, it will also collect information such as the longest photo streak, the total number of smiles captured, who smiled the most and the people who appear the most in the photos.
In addition, it shows a palette of the colors of the year and the user’s three main personalities, based on the photos taken. All of this is made possible, in part, thanks to the face recognition function of Google Photos.
Thus, this year-end summary option will be available for both Android and iOS and in the Web version, although for the moment it has only been launched in the United States.
There are also social networks that share the annual summary of the user’s activity. For example, with ‘Your Memories’ BeReal collects all the instant posts that users have published during the year, putting them together in a compilation video.
In the case of Instagram, it allows users to create their own ‘Recap’ using a Reels template, in which they can add their favourite photos of the year to create a short video that recalls those moments.
