The best of 2022 lists and year-end recaps are just around the corner, including Spotify Wrapped, the streaming platform’s flashy interactive feature that’s become an annual tradition that overtakes social media by a few days. The main competitor, Apple Music, made some graphs also for listeners and this time comes with some changes.
Apple Music Replay is available to users starting today, accessible via the platform’s website. It’s not the first time Apple Music has tried to compete with Spotify’s collection – it launched Replay in 2019 in the form of custom playlists – but hasn’t had a major update yet.
This year’s redesigned Replay includes more data-intensive, shareable features, such as a personalized list of top artist highlights, songs, albums, genres, and total minutes listened. Fans in the top 100 of an artist or genre can see their status, and users can track how their listening habits are changing until December 31.
So far, Apple has essentially let Spotify dominate year-end music streaming reviews. In the past, Spotify Wrapped featured mixed playlists between friends, interactive games, and “aura” visualizations of their music tastes. Top artist and genre charts are almost inescapable online at the end of the year, and so is Spotify already teasing Wrapped up this year as users eagerly await the data the platform will collect from them in 2022.
Apple Music Replay launched on the same day as YouTube Music’s 2022 Recap feature, which is now available to listeners on the platform. The year-in-review feature has become a competitive way for companies to repackage user data into maximally shareable content that benefits both parties at least a little. Streaming platforms get a free promotion for a few days and listeners can pretend people are interested in whatever music they like.
