This year, it seems yearly reviews, specifically through social media sites, have become immensely popular. Here are a few standouts, and let downs.
Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped has become the inspiration behind all modern social media recaps. Since its beginning in 2016, other platforms have been yearning for the virality Spotify has attained each year. For example, two weeks after Spotify’s launch, personalized recap videos flooded other platforms like TikTok and Instagram as individuals wished to share their data. Through colorful graphics and unique animations, this creative launch allows consumers to view their personalized statistics after a year of listening, including top artists, albums, songs, playlists and much more. Listeners can also discover their “music personality,” which Spotify used these statistics to create.
“Spotify Wrapped season is my favorite time of year! I love seeing peers post their favorite music they’ve listened to throughout the year. I’ve made some of my closest friends by posting my Spotify Wrapped, it’s such a cool way to connect,” Summit junior Lindsey Pease said.
According to the New York Times, the Spotify Wrapped Creative Team takes 6 months to write the funny quips and creative, colorful designs for their waiting audience on Nov. 30 each year. Over their 8 years of experience, Spotify has made the event even more user-friendly, giving artists stats on listeners and creating a top list designed for podcast lovers. This effort is easily recognized through high quality results.
“I think Spotify has gained so much traction because of how interactive it has become,” Pease said.
Apple Replay
Although Apple Replay has considerably improved from past years, it’s still miles behind Spotify Wrapped. They provide similar statistics with no creative flare, just a simple font and a monotone color scheme—and all this is coming from an Apple Music user. Additionally, the program can only be viewed online, creating a more difficult experience for users.
According to The Globe, a high school newspaper based out of Mamaroneck, New York, teen users preferred Spotify 67% to Apple Music at 33%. Almost the entire teen demographic favors Spotify to Apple, and in many instances, it’s clear why.
VSCO Captured
This year VSCO, a photo editing and posting form, launched its first ever yearly recap. Although no one asked for it, the statistics were interesting, as many hadn’t thought about them before. These included the amount of photos posted, the most common filters and the day a user ended up posting the most.
Creatively, VSCO also collected data from all consumers, creating a list for the entire platform. Even though VSCO seems to be a dying app (after a huge internet trend made fun of its users), we can now all know that a majority of them post on Sunday, based on unimportant statistics.
“It was cool seeing what filters and tools I used the most. It was also surprising because I genuinely didn’t think that I used my “most-used” filter that much and that my most active day was Sunday,” Redmond Proficiency Academy junior Dakota Saldaña said.
Locket Recap
Although a newer, more unknown platform, Locket also hopped on the 2022 recap trend. Locket is an app that allows friends and family to send photos to one another which are then displayed as a widget on one’s home screen. This unique app, which originated on TikTok, shows how many photos users sent out as well as how many photos each of their friends sent back.
BeReal Recap
BeReal sends out a notification once a day at a random time, prompting users to take a photo within a few minutes and, in turn, “BeReal” on social media. Although this app’s audience became increasingly large, its staff did not. According to Vogue, the platform is single-handedly run by two former GoPro employees, Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau. This might explain the shortcomings of this year’s recap.
The recap was a video montage, quickly flashing through all the photos from 2022. However, no music was put in the background, possibly due to copyright issues. Another snag was that many users had to wait in line to access their BeReal recaps, resulting in frustration and difficult navigation. Similarly to Spotify Wrapped, many teenage users reposted this edit on their stories.
Youtube Music Recap
Traditionally, Youtube collaborates with popular creators to create a large scale production and revisit the year’s trends in a short video. However, after plenty of backlash, in the form of 20 million dislikes in 2018, the platform decided to take a different route.
Youtube Music Recap is almost identical to Spotify Wrapped, with personalized playlists, top artists, albums, songs and music personalities. Its graphics greatly surpass Apple Replay’s. Youtube Music even partners with Google Photos to further customize playlists with memories from the year. Even though it isn’t a typical platform for music, its replay outshines those that are.
