Parents Are Sharing Their 2023 Spotify Wrapped And, Once Again, Kids Totally Ruined Them
Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by Blippi, Imagine Dragons, and Baby Shark.
Music streaming service Spotify just released 2023 Wrapped, a nifty algorithm that sorts through all the listening data for a Spotify users. Wrapped notes users’ top songs and musical artists of the year as well as total listening minutes and favorite podcasts.
While this feature might be amazing for people without kids, parents are sharing the most-played artists and songs on their playlists and it just shows how much kids are really in control of the speakers.
What could have been an amazing way to share with friends and family on social media just what kind of mood 2023 was based on music preferences has essentially turned into a day of mourning for parents whose list is filled with Disney songs, “Baby Shark,” or, if you’re my child, “Life Is A Highway” from the Cars soundtrack.
When you’re the parent of young kids (and your phone is hooked up to your home’s smart device), then it’s most likely your 2023 Spotify Wrapped looks a lot like some of these parents.
One X user sent solidarity to parents who can’t enjoy their Spotify Wrapped because it’s been totally bogarted by their children.
“I would like to shout out parents whose Spotify wrapped is just whatever your kids music taste is,” she joked.
Another basically said, tell me you’re a parent without telling me you’re a parent and shared a screenshot of her Top Artists according to Spotify Wrapped. So, which “artist” topped her list?
None other than everyone’s favorite cartoon dog — Bluey.
“My Spotify Wrapped said YOU ARE A PARENT,” she wrote.
Another mom wrote, “being a parent is knowing that your spotify wrapped is going to be fucked bc your kid made you play the little mermaid soundtrack 107 times”
One mom’s Spotify Wrapped took a different look at being a parent, sharing that her top genres were all classical types of music.
She wrote on X, “My Spotify wrapped is screaming ‘I’m a parent trying to get my baby to sleep every night using classical music and lullabies’ Oh how times have changed.”
Last year, one dad tried to ask Spotify to be a little bit smarter with their algorithm and help us desperate parents out. “Dear @Spotify I know that 'Wrapped' is only 8~ weeks away, & I have a humble request on behalf of parents everywhere,” he tweeted. “Please make your algorithm smart enough to automatically exclude all forms of 'white noise'! I promise, 'Baby Sleep Waves' was not my favourite song in 2022.”
While the end results are hilarious, some parents are looking for solutions to this problem. Fed up with their kids totally overtaking their Spotify Wrapped, some have asked for Spotify to come up with switchable profiles for an account a lá Netflix. That way kids can enjoy their own accounts and listen to the entire Blippi soundtrack in peace while parents can jam to Taylor Swift and remain in her top .5% of listeners (Not speaking from experience or anything...).
One Twitter user wrote, “Spotify are missing a trick by not letting you have multiple profiles to listen from a la Netflix or Prime so parents of young children can still have a valid Spotify Wrapped without all the white noise and nursery rhymes clogging it up.”
Spotify does offer a kid’s version of their app, however, it does not work with most car’s bluetooth capabilities (which is where most parents have their sing-alongs).
This year, one dad posted on X with a rather genius override to this perpetual problem.
“PSA for parents: if you’re sick of your kids messing up your Spotify Wrapped, drop their favorites into a playlist then exclude it from your taste profile (also works for sleep sounds, white noise, etc.),” he wrote.
“Thank you my kids are cute but they have some questionable taste in music,” one mom replied.
“It’s the only thing keeping Kidz Bop out of my top five,” the OP responded.
Another mom had a work around that could work that doesn’t require Spotify to do anything. “PSA for parents: Make a separate Spotify account for your kid(s). 1) Log into the app with their account. 2) Log into mobile browser with your account. Do not let them taint your Spotify Wrapped next year,” they tweeted.
One mom took this advice and made her three-year-old daughter, Emily, her very own Spotify account. At the end of the year, she shared the toddler’s very own 2022 Spotify Wrapped to TikTok. No surprise — the video went viral.
Little Emily had a wide variety of musical tastes. Her top five musical artists were Psy (Remember “Gangnam Style”?), Parry Gripp, Crazy Frog, Mr. Bean, and finally, in a super random choice, Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump.
The video, which now has over 1.9 million views, had people flooding the comments with their takes on the three-year-old’s Spotify Wrapped.
This year, Emily was at it again, now four years old, and ready to show the world what she was jamming to in 2023.
“The highly anticipated 4 year old Emily's Spotify wrapped 2023.Yes, my 4 year old has a Spotify. It's 100% worth it,” Emily’s mom, Katie Perry, wrote.
This year, Emily took a turn into the rock genre with AC/DC taking her Top Artist spot as well as several of their songs ranking in her Top Played list.
However, in true kid fashion, legendary kid’s song writer Parry Grip (“It’s Raining Tacos,” anyone?) was second on her list.
Maybe getting each kid their own Spotify profile would be the best course of action for the future. Not only would the issue be solved with every single parent’s year in music staying in tact with songs and artists they actually enjoy but we could also experience the joy of how weird and hilarious kids can be.
If you haven’t checked to see if your kids have ruined your 2023 Spotify Wrapped yet, head here to find out.
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