Spotify Wrapped: How does it work – and who are this year’s top artists? | Ents & Arts News

The hotly anticipated Spotify Wrapped is revealing our top tracks, artists and albums for 2025.

But how does the streaming service calculate personalised summaries of users’ listening habits and rank the UK’s hottest artists?

Here’s a look at how your data is used.

The platform describes the annual statistics as “a chance to look back on your year in sound”.

It says data is captured between January and mid-November on every account, although it mostly excludes anything streamed in private mode. (Don’t worry, your passion for the Spice Girls can be kept secret.)

Wrapped presents personalised listening statistics, which Spotify calls the “real story of your year of listening”, alongside global figures for comparison.

The streaming service says Minutes Listened reflects the actual time spent listening to audio on the platform.

Once a user streams at least 30 tracks, Spotify generates a list of Your Top Songs. Similarly, Your Top Artists ranks artists based on total minutes listening to a particular performer.

Other metrics identify the top genres users have played, as well as podcasts and audiobooks ranked by total minutes listened. And if you’ve listened to at least 70% of tracks on a record, you’ll see top albums too.

Spotify also creates Your Listening Age, a guesstimate of your age based on the era of the music “you feel most connected to”.

The streaming service says the statistic is calculated using a five-year span of music which users engaged with more than other listeners of a similar age.

Swift vs Bunny

Pop superstar Taylor Swift has been named the UK’s most-streamed artist on Spotify for the third year in a row.

But she dropped out of the top spot in the global rankings, coming second to Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, who secured more than 19.8 billion streams. Third was The Weeknd, followed by Drake and Billie Eilish.

Bad Bunny’s LP Debi Tirar Mas Fotos was the most listened-to album worldwide.

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Spotify revealed Drake was the UK’s second most-listened to artist, followed by Sabrina Carpenter in third, The Weeknd in fourth, and Billie Eilish in fifth.

Despite being the most listened-to artist, Swift failed to break into the UK’s top five most listened-to songs and albums of the year.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary was the most-streamed song, and Short ‘N’ Sweet, released by Carpenter last year, the top album.