Maybe Spotify knows more about you than you do

"The 2025 edition of Spotify Wrapped goes beyond just summarizing what you listened to with charts and infographics. This year, Spotify is also assigning each user a "Listening Age," which is based on the release years of their favorite tracks compared to others in the same age group. The feature quickly went rival, as users recoiled at their seemingly geriatric (or juvenile) musical tastes."

"At the risk of reading too much into something that's ultimately good fun, Wrapped's expanding purview is a reminder of how the things you listen to can speak to who you are as a person, which could end up being valuable data. Your Listening Age is mostly a silly diversion, but it could also be a kind of flex as Spotify expands its targeted advertising ambitions."

"Heading into 2026, Spotify is under pressure from shareholders to boost ad revenue. While 63% of monthly active users are on Spotify's free, ad-supported plan, they only made up about 10% of revenues last quarter. Analysts such as Rich Greenfield have criticized Spotify for disappointing ad revenue growth, and the company launched a programmatic ad exchange earlier this year to scale up its ad placements."

"The shift toward programmatic advertising, in which ads are bought and sold through automated systems, will entail granular targeting of users based on what Spotify knows about them. Spotify has long boasted to advertisers about being able to target ads based on users' listening behaviors and interests, and says its programmatic ads will let advertisers "reach users based on moods, mindsets and moments.""

Spotify's 2025 Wrapped assigns each user a 'Listening Age' determined by the release years of favorite tracks relative to peers. Many users reacted to unexpectedly old or young Listening Ages. The Listening Age functions as a playful metric but also aligns with Spotify's expanding targeted-ad ambitions. Spotify faces pressure to grow ad revenue as free, ad-supported users make up 63% of monthly active users but contributed about 10% of revenue last quarter. The company launched a programmatic ad exchange to scale automated ad placements and touts the ability to target ads by moods, mindsets, and moments. User data exports include an 'Inferences' section that attempts to guess attributes from usage.

Read at Fast Company