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I don't really understand what the author is complaining about. Spotify Wrapped is just a fun thing that shows you your music listening stats. The data is all very obvious and not invasive at all. Is the author arguing that it should be discontinued? Or is he saying it should change in some way?
Agreed. The author seems like a bummer of a person to me.
Collecting data on users is not inherently bad, there are lots of ways that data collection can be used to the user's benefit.
If course in this day in age that is typically not the case and companies are normally collecting data at the detriment of the user but I really don't see that with what Wrapped shows.
Plus it's fun to see little metrics like how many times I listened to a song this year, or see how my listening habits changed as the year went by.
It's just a fun and cute thing imo.
Heck, there's a self hosted app out there on GitHub (https://github.com/Yooooomi/your_spotify) that allows people to do this in house and I'd guess more real-time, so there's a demand for it out there. Spotify knows these things anyhow, they have to in order to calculate payments, so why not make it available.
I actually host this for myself and found out the same results as wrapped gave me between February and October this year.
Ooo this looks cool. If love to go deeper into my stats. Might do this at some point. Can you have multiple users at once by any chance?
STOP HAVING FUN! - The author
The music streaming service, that I stream music from, knows which music I streamed. I’m shocked.
The problem is when that streaming service also tells all its company friends what music you streamed, which helps them profile you even more accurately.
I listed to marina and the diamonds and tool. Maybe they could pitch me better headphones? I am actually in the market for new headphones.
Genuinely looking for new headphones?
Wired or wireless?
I kind of love headphones.
I'm also in the market for new headphones! Wireless. I currently have a pair for gaming and a pair for music/travelling. It's critical the travelling pair have outrageously good sound cancelling. Both must have a mic. Unlimited budget.
Have at thee!
Okay so this provides an interesting set of restraints as they are traveling headphones. I have yet to find what I consider the perfect traveling headphones but there are a couple I have found that come close.
The Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra's
Bose has some remarkable ANC, after all that is one of the things that really established their name in the market. My main two complaints with the Bose is the sound signature isn't always the best (IMO) and that the app can be finicky at best bordering on terribly annoying.
The Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra's are really amazing for the ANC and their sound is improved with their new processor but if you are on an apple device you will miss out on this feature. Only devices with a snap dragon 888 or newer can take advantage.
One of the caveats is that the microphone quality is not the best I had some complaints about call quality when using the Bose.
One pro is that they collapse into a smaller form factor with a slightly better carrying case.
For the Sony XM5 I really preferred the sound signature and styling is just Chefs Kiss. They fold flat enough which makes packing them easy enough even if they aren't as small as the Bose. I also prefer that the XM5 has a 3.5mm audio jack instead of a 2.5mm on the Bose. It feels more likely to last longer. Also because they are slightly older you can probably find a better deal.
The Sony does a remarkably good job at rejecting background noise when making phone calls and has a much wider band of frequencies captured. The Bose sounds very tiny and scratchy.
The Sony also has a longer battery life which is nice.
I know you said that outrageous good noise cancelling is key but if you are willing to compromise a little on the ANC quality the Focal Bathys have far superior sound.
The frequency curve on the mids to low end is practically flat, it does fall off the tiniest bit on the upper mids and lower highs but for me this means you get a really accurate sound reproduction that isn't tiring and can be listened to all day long. The soundstage is really wide especially given that they are closed back.
The looks are a bit odd and they are a bit on the larger side. They still fold flat and they have a superior amount of cushion and I think the build quality is better.
Oh if you are a bass head that just wants super punchy powerful bass go for the Sony's over the Focals. The Focals are more accurate but less present.
Lastly is my currently traveling setup. Its... non-traditional. I am using a pair of Samsung Galaxy Pro 2 buds which really fit my ear well and already have some pretty remarkable ANC. Not nearly Headphone level but still very good. Here is the non-traditional part: if I REALLY need to block out outside noise IE on a construction site or in the shop I wear the buds underneath a pair of passive cancelling earmuffs. Specifically the Peltor X5 Earmuffs.
It's not stylish but the Earmuffs + Buds + Comply Foam tips feels like you are in a void. Barely have to touch the volume to hear your music as clear as day.
Awesome thanks for the write up! The headphones I'm replacing are XM3 but I've had them over 5 years now I think and they're showing their age (just aesthetically as the cushions are starting to crack, and flaking isn't far away imo) so I suspect I'll go for the XM5 as I've been really happy with these.
For gaming I think I'll stick with steelseries (assuming they still have a model that does replaceable batteries) as I always forget to charge stuff so the base station charging the spare has been awesome.
Thanks again!
Anytime!
If you want to extend the life of your XM3's you can get some high quality upgraded cushions from "Wicked Cushions" for $30. They have a couple of different styles other than just straight black.
That’s always a tough one!
I don’t mind the wire, but wireless could be very nice. I’m an audio technica fan.
It would be awesome to have headphones with a good microphone, for calls at work. They’ll also have to be comfortable - I like to jam while writing code for multi-hour sessions.
My home computer doesn’t have bluetooth, so I’m probably team wired.
OK, there are many different ways to approach your current setup.
Wired vs wireless isn't that much of an issue as you can get very affordable Bluetooth adapters for your computer.
Also the goal of what you want your headphones to do is going to come into play here as well because you may want a stationary setup vs mobile.
Then there's the microphone requirement...
Actually rather than fill an unrelated thread with headphone advice I'm going to DM you.
An unlikely pairing, but one that matches my own tastes.
What are they going to do, black mail me by telling my friends I listen to Taylor Swift occasionally?
No, but the more they know about you, the surer they can be that different groups of data belong to the same person. Since music taste is quite personal, it helps quite a lot in constructing a profile. And I sure hope you do understand that it isn't ideal that tech giants know everything about you.
They have my payment information. They don’t need to guess.
Yes, but you also won't give them your payment information every time you use the internet, or on every device, so often it might just as well be someone else on your IP address.
If the article had been about that, that would have been an interesting article.
I am normally really protective with my data but I don't get the outrage here. If the data is all about how you use the app and the report relates to things relevant to usage that are interesting and is sent just to you,I don't see the harm. It's not broadcast to the world and isn't sharing a bunch of sensitive information (as far as I know). It just seems like a fun way to reflect on the year.
I use Pandora and I wish they did something like this. As much as pandora is all about data I would love to see a report on my music listening with some of their insights about music attributes included.
You may want to look into last.fm, I see It supports Pandora too.
It does a better job than Spotify imo
It also shows you users with similar music tastes. There's this one guy I found in 2015/2016. Every time I look for new music, I just peruse his recently played and always leave happy. Never messaged him. I don't even think he (or she) speaks English.
There are plenty of ways to convince people to take privacy and security more seriously, but this isn't it. This is more likely to make people not take it seriously. Spotify Wrapped is a fun little gimmick that a lot of folks appreciate. Heck even I did, and I only rarely use Spotify.
Spotify has to collect data on what you listen to to recommend music that’s similar. I’d argue that’s Spotify’s best feature.
I like spotify wrapped. I could easily pirate music, but I have premium for music discovery and it's cool to see what I've been listening to this year and compare with previous years.
Spotify is the only service I pay for. Quite happy with it.
And apparently I listen to FAR more John Denver than I ever would have guessed. My teenage punker self would smack me.
Lmso, spotify is nice becouse 99% of artists are there but the artists dont get psid well apparently, personaløy I use it cuz its easy and convenient.
Also my wrapped just cuz principle:
My friends and I enjoy sharing our results with each other every year. IMO the problem arises when results are shared with advertisers or without my knowledge.
Yeah, on its own this is a good feature and I don’t have to write my own version based on the GDPR data request.
This article should actually be about hack journalism that uses hot button issues to make clicks out of pointless nonsense.
The second part of the headline is misleading, while true, the author gives just a cursory glance to privacy.
Why wouldn't they keep track of what you listen to even without wrapped? It's just standard telemetry. They need to keep track of plays to pay artists accordingly, and they keep track of what you listen to specifically so they can give you recommendations. How would you think recommendations would work without some kind of tracking?
Also what's scary about knowing what you listened to? Heck me and my significant other guess each others top song and artist and we're always close even though we don't hear everything each of us listen to. And what nefarious purposes is Spotify usage going to be used for that makes it so scary?
Statements like this make people take privacy less seriously. I don't see how a music streaming site could possibly function without at least indirectly collecting the information displayed in the wrap up.
My only issue with Spotify Wrapped is just how inaccurate it ALWAYS is, comparing it to my Last.fm account
Thats interesting. My lastfm and Spotify wrapped are basically identical. Every top song and artist are in the same order.
i checked my stats.fm top 2023 artists vs wrapped, and i'm seeing the same inaccuracies that you mention. my wrapped artists were:
while on stats.fm, it shows:
i think that spotify is definitely strategic with placing certain artists in certain positions. for example, "Artist F" probably was in top 5 last year as well (and is a successful but less-well-known artist), but went unlisted on wrapped this year and was replaced by Artist C, a global top 200 artist. and it worked - i had not listened to Artist C in a while, and when i saw my wrapped results, i started listening to them again.
GTFO, wrapped is the best. I get to learn I'm like top 0.5% listeners of my favourite bands. I'm the biggest fan! I win!
This year I noticed that it didn't really reflect my tastes. A couple of the most played songs were songs I don't actually like, that Spotify keeps playing me in the car. I can't tell it I don't like the song while I'm driving, and even if I skip it, the song just reappears the next day.
So my New Year's music resolution is to rely on generated streaming playlists less and be more deliberate about what I listen to. Evidently I'm spending a lot of time tolerating music I don't particularly enjoy.
Yeah I spent a lot of time with "daily mix" playlists playing. Half of the songs were ones they kept repeating in those.
I enjoy it. I like seeing what new bands or songs got my attention, the throwback to favorite songs from earlier in the year, and seeing how my tastes change over time. It's fun.
Between all of the other big tech firms eating as much of my data as they can, I'm not too worried about Spotify sharing that I like Adele.
I guess if you feed it with your personal taste. My wrapped was all over the place. I only use Spotify in parties and ask everyone what do they want to enjoy.
Yeah.. Takes note of everything you listen to, and when..... But only when you're using spotify lol
I stopped using Spotify because it doesn't integrate well with home automation platforms (only with sonos) and because they wasted 100 mil on Joe Rogan (which made it clear I'm not their target market). I hate apple, but even they pay their artists
I want a service which is a bit more targeted, and its not really worth much. Its not exactly valuable information what I listened to lol (except to other music services)
On the one hand, better you know what they collect about you than not. And as long as you use a streaming service they're collecting data on you.
On the other hand, streaming services are inherently wasteful and lead to pointless and excessive power usage which contributes to climate change, not to mention the privacy concerns, all of which could have been avoided by reasonably priced buy-once-own-forever media.
I'm not sure I agree with the power usage argument. Even for streaming services, all the ones I'm familiar with will cache songs you listen to frequently on your device (which they're financially incentivized to do to reduce bandwidth) and isn't consuming any more power than buy-once-own-forever. And if you're comparing to physical media I'd assume it is far better, since you're saving all the energy to acquire materials to create the media, write to it, package it, and ship it.
What if google made a Google Wrapped? With your Gmail, Youtube videos, locations, etc. That would be scary... That's why they don't do it
they do just that if you have location history turned on though
Just for locations, but is already scary enough