A Comprehensive Year in Review Explainer

As 2025 comes to a close, so come the highly anticipated year in reviews—photo collages, slideshows, and endless reports from apps like Beli, Goodreads, Letterboxd, and, of course, Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify’s year in review, Spotify Wrapped, was seemingly the first of its kind to really make a mainstream impact. Starting in 2016, and every year since, Spotify has provided users with an in-depth look back at their listening history over the course of the past 12 months, but in 2024, the biggest day of the year for music fans was severely disappointing.

In 2019, Apple Music rolled out their own version of Spotify Wrapped, Replay. Though Spotify has enjoyed a hefty edge over its competitor Apple Music, their 2024 Wrapped was over-saturated with AI, and lacked the usual human aspect that had users looking forward to Spotify Wrapped day year round. Additionally, many artists have begun pulling their catalogs from Spotify entirely, due to CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in AI military technology.

With Spotify under fire from users worldwide, this year could be a turning point for Apple Music in the heated modern debate of Spotify vs. Apple Music. Apple Music’s Replay launched on Tuesday, December 2nd, most likely a strategic move by Apple to roll out Replay 2025 before Spotify Wrapped 2025.

Apple Music’s Replay Goes All Out In 2025

Apple Music focuses on both the personal component and the global component, creating a perfect dichotomy of the individual and the communal listening experiences. Last month, before they rolled out this year’s Replay, Apple Music named Tyler, the Creator artist of the year. The rapper had a phenomenal year, with the release of his album CHROMAKOPIA at the end of 2024, and his summer release, Don’t Tap The Glass. This year on Apple Music, Tyler, the Creator amassed a whopping 4.5 billion minutes of streaming time.

The streaming service also highlighted the platform’s number one song, Bruno Mars’ and Rosé’s “APT.” The song was the first #1 for both Mars and Rosé on the year-end global songs chart, and that wasn’t the only chart which saw “APT.” at number one.

Beyond the year-end charts, Apple Music’s Replay capitalizes on the human element that Spotify Wrapped in 2024 was so deeply lacking that it essentially broke the internet. This year’s Replay includes Discovery, the artists which a user first discovered this year, Loyalty, the artists which a user has listened to most consistently, and Comebacks, the artists that a user began listening to again after some time off. Replay also tells users their total number of minutes listening, total number of artists they listened to, and their favorite genres.

Users are able to access their Replay stats in the Apple Music app. Depending on the contents of this year’s Spotify Wrapped, it’s very possible that this year’s Replay and its consistent positive reception could be the tipping point to move any number of Spotify users towards the switch to Apple Music.