I got an email from Spotify this weekend asking me to resubscribe for a significant discount. This comes just days after the company rolled out their “2020 wrapped” report to millions of users. Users who, I must add, were more than happy to share these updates to social media.

And you can see why, this is fascinating data displayed masterfully! With the addition of podcasts, this data is even more interesting than before.

Apple Music Replay also happened, but the reaction was much more muted. Not only is this completely non-discoverable & lives on the web not the Apple Music app, but it's data is woefully lacking. It's presented basically as a few “most plays” lists with a playlist you can add to your library at the end.

But not only that, the data appears to be woefully incomplete. From what I can tell, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that “plays” mean songs that you made it all the way to the end of the song. Listen to 90% of a song and skip ahead instead of listening to a few seconds of basically silence? Not a play. If this is true, and I think it is, then that's like 2002-era iTunes metrics which I disliked at the time and still don't find sufficient.

But even if the numbers are 100% accurate and count how I personally wish they would, the Replay feature just doesn't hold a candle to Spotify’s Wrapped. I don't plan on jumping ship for this feature, but it sure makes me wish I was using Spotify for a few weeks every year, and that's the crack in the armor that could break into a deeper cut someday.

If I was Apple, I would invest in Replay ‘21 pretty seriously for next year.