Spotify Wrapped 2023

I Don't Think the App Really Understands Me

I just clicked on me Spotify Wrapped, the music streaming app from which I get value, even if the musicians, songwriters, and artists don’t. You don’t think they collect data much, do ya? Wrapped is the summary of a subscribers listening habits.

My top genre was “Classic Rock.” Though I am a multiformat kind of guy, as I settle into late middle age, formerly perceived as oldish-age, I tend to dance with the one that brung me. Also, I use Spotify to research the music I write about, because I write on my upstairs desktop computer, and though surrounded by records, the Victrola is downstairs.

I played 523 songs on Spotify in 2023. I don’t think that’s a lot, because there are many days that go by without listening to any music at all except when I’m in the car, which is not for long and not that often. For a one-time professional critic, it’s meager. Instead, I carry around earworms all day, especially the last song I heard on the radio. I wonder if this is part of the process of aging, o…