Spotify Wrapped 2025 is here

NEW YORK (AP):

The holiday season has arrived, and so has Spotify Wrapped. Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has been named the platform’s most-played artiste for the fourth time, edging out Taylor Swift. On Wednesday, Spotify released its annual breakdown of global and individual listening habits. Users can now view their top artistes, songs, genres, albums and podcasts, along with the year’s biggest performers on the platform.

CHART-TOPPING PERFORMERS

The reggaetón-and-then-some artiste was this year’s most-streamed artiste globally, having earned more than 19.8 billion streams. He is followed by Swift, The Weeknd, Drake and Billie Eilish, in that order. For the last two years, Swift has commanded the top spot, globally — claiming it in 2023 and holding it for 2024 — having dethroned Bad Bunny. He held the coveted title for three years in a row beginning in 2020. Now, he’s back on top.

In the US , the most-streamed artiste list looks somewhat similar: There, Swift leads, followed by Drake, Morgan Wallen and Kendrick Lamar. Bad Bunny is in the fifth spot.

The most-streamed album globally was, of course, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos followed by the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and three releases from 2024: Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, SZA’s SOS Deluxe: LANA and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, in that order.

In the US, it differs slightly. The most-streamed album is Wallen’s I’m The Problem, followed by SZA, Bad Bunny, the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and Lamar’s GNX.

Globally, the most-streamed song title goes to Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s collaboration, Die with a Smile, which has racked up over 1.7 billion streams. Then it’s Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, Mars’ and Rosé ‘s APT., Alex Warren’s Ordinary and Bad Bunny’s DtMF.

Lamar and SZA’s Luther was the most-streamed song in the US, followed by Die with a Smile, Ordinary, Birds of a Feather and in fifth, Lamar and Lefty Gunplay’s TV Off.

WHAT’S NEW?

Like every year, there are a few new features. Those include the introduction of Top Albums, a fan leaderboard to show users where they stack up in an artiste’s streams, a Listening Age feature that compares a user’s streaming habits to those in their age range and much more. There is also something called Wrapped Party, an interactive feature which allows users to compare their Wrapped with other Spotify users.

These additions differ from last year, when some Spotify users complained on social media that Wrapped, which undergoes design changes every year, was minimalist in 2024. They said it lacked previous features like Top Cities, Audio Auras and Top Genres. The latter has been reinstated for 2025.

Other revisited features in 2025 include Top Songs, which now will allow users to see how many times they streamed their top 100 tracks and a Top Song Quiz.

The biggest global artistes continue to dominate Spotify Wrapped, which isn’t surprising given their visibility on the platform and their massive fanbases. For independent artistes who show up on individual listeners’ Wrapped, reaching the global list would require billions of streams.

Streaming drives most of the music industry’s revenue — 84 per cent in the United States, according to the RIAA. Spotify remains the largest platform, holding about 31 per cent of the market with 713 million users and 281 million subscribers across more than 180 markets. That’s up from 626 million users and 246 million subscribers a year ago.