It’s Spotify Wrapped time. How to find yours, plus a look at NC artist stats for 2023

Korie Dean, Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska
·7 min read

It’s Spotify Wrapped season.

The music and podcast streaming service released its annual, personalized look-back for users Wednesday, giving them a deep dive into their listening habits and trends throughout the year.

If you’re a Spotify user, you may be clicking around your app trying to see your most-played artists and on-repeat songs of 2023.

Below, we’ll tell you how to find your 2023 Spotify Wrapped playlist, plus give you some info on how many listeners some of our local artists in North Carolina got this year.

What is Spotify Wrapped?

Spotify Wrapped is an annual, personalized look at your streaming habits on the Spotify app, which is used to play music, podcasts and other audio.

The snapshot of your streaming year looks at your most-streamed songs, artists, genres and more in a fun, interactive way.

Through Spotify Wrapped, found in the Spotify app on phones, you’ll be guided through interactive slides detailing your streaming history over the past year. You’ll also have the option to download a playlist with your top 100 most-streamed songs from 2023, allowing you to keep coming back to those songs you love so much.

This year’s Wrapped brings back popular features from years’ past, plus new ones — like assigning you a “character” based off your streaming habits.

What’s new about Spotify Wrapped for 2023?

Here are some new ways to interact with Wrapped this year, Spotify said in a press release:

  • Desktop access is available for the very first time. (More on that below.)

  • Me in 2023 shows a streaming habit that defined your music listening this year. When you flip your card, it reveals a listening character specific to your tastes and habits on Spotify. There are 12 characters, including Vampire, Mastermind, Shapeshifter, Collector and Hunter.

  • Sound Town matches you to a city based on your listening and the artists you love.

  • Top 5 Genres shows how your top genres stacked up through a sandwich-inspired design.

  • Wrapped Feed on your Spotify Home screen is a one-stop spot for all things Wrapped. You can get Spotify’s Best Of playlists, find merch from your top artists and learn about your favorite musicians’ upcoming concerts near you.

  • Artist Messages let you hear from one of your top artists within your personalized Wrapped. You can visit the Wrapped feed for more video messages from thousands of singers, including Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Dolly Parton.

Learn more about this year’s Wrapped at newsroom.spotify.com.

How to find your Spotify Wrapped

• Update the app: If your Spotify Wrapped isn’t popping up when you open your app on your mobile device, it might be time for an update. Head to the app store on your device to get that done.

• It’s now on your desktop: This year, for the first time, you can view Wrapped from any browser by visiting Spotify.com/Wrapped.

• Post it to social media: You can share your Wrapped stats to social media by clicking the “Share this story” button at the bottom of each slide. You can share your slides to your Instagram Story, Twitter and others.

Here’s how many listeners our local artists got

There’s no way for listeners to access Wrapped stats for their favorite artists in the app, but sometimes artists will share them on social media.

We’ll keep an eye out for any Triangle- or North Carolina-based artists who share their stats this year, but in the meantime, here’s a snapshot of some artists’ monthly listeners — a calculation Spotify makes based on the past 28 days of listening activity by users in the app.

▪ The Avett Brothers — The Avett Brothers, which consists of real-life brothers Scott and Seth Avett plus Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon, is a folk rock band from Concord, North Carolina. The band’s most recent EP, “The Third Gleam,” was released in 2020. The band has 2,461,701 monthly listeners on Spotify.

▪ Chatham Rabbits — This husband-and-wife duo quit their jobs to pursue music full-time in 2018. They play a mix of bluegrass, folk and old-time style tunes. Last year, the band got their own show on PBS North Carolina, giving viewers a glimpse into their lives on the road as touring musicians. They currently have 11,336 monthly listeners on Spotify.

▪ Eric Church — A contemporary country artist, he wrote and recorded his most recent album, “Heart & Soul,” in North Carolina. Church is a native of Granite Falls, a town in Caldwell County, and is an alumnus of Appalachian State University. He currently has 8,945,415 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Eric Church
Eric Church

▪ J. Cole — Raised in Fayetteville, J.Cole is all about repping North Carolina. The Grammy-nominated rapper sported an NC State jersey in his “Under the Sun” music video, which has more than 65 million views on YouTube. He has 44,481,507 monthly listeners on Spotify.

▪ James Taylor — This six-time Grammy winning artist grew up in Chapel Hill. One of his most famous songs, “Carolina on my Mind,” turned 50 years old in 2019. Taylor has 5,870,191 monthly listeners.

James Taylor, who grew up in Carrboro, has made 20 studio albums and still performs his distinctive blend of blues, soul, pop, country and folk.
James Taylor, who grew up in Carrboro, has made 20 studio albums and still performs his distinctive blend of blues, soul, pop, country and folk.

▪ Luke Combs — This country star was born in Charlotte and grew up in Asheville, then attended Appalachian State University in Boone before dropping out to pursue his music career. He recently won Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year at this year’s Country Music Association Awards. Combs currently has 20,437,325 monthly listeners.

▪ Mipso — This band met and formed at UNC-Chapel Hill in the 2010s. The four-person band’s debut album “Dark Holler Pop” came out in 2013, and their latest album, the self-titled “Mipso,” came out in October 2020. The band currently has 848,556 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Mipso, featuring Joseph Terrell, Jacob Sharp, Wood Robinson and Libby Rodenbough.
Mipso, featuring Joseph Terrell, Jacob Sharp, Wood Robinson and Libby Rodenbough.

▪ Nnenna Freelon — Freelon, a North Carolina native and jazz singer, released her album “AnceStars” with her son Pierce Freelon this year. Freelon is a multi-time Grammy nominated artist, and she resides in Durham. She has 56,706 monthly listeners.

▪ Rhiannon Giddens — Greensboro native Rhiannon Giddens is a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a Durham-based and Grammy-winning old-time string band. Giddens won the 2022 Grammy for Best Folk Album. Giddens currently has 527,399 monthly listeners on Spotify, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops have 158,079.

Rhiannon Giddens in concert at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh in 2017. Giddens won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for co-writing “Omar.”
Rhiannon Giddens in concert at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh in 2017. Giddens won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for co-writing “Omar.”

▪ Rissi Palmer — This Durham-based singer and songwriter was listed in Rolling Stone magazine’s “Future 25” list in 2021, which celebrates 25 people changing and innovating the music industry. Palmer has 56,073 monthly listeners.

▪ Scotty McCreery — A Garner native, he won “American Idol” in 2011, gaining fame in North Carolina and beyond. He’s experienced chart-topping success since then, and his hit song “Five More Minutes” now serves as the inspiration for two Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Christmas films of the same name. He was inducted to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame this year. McCreery currently has 2,893,631 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Former American Idol winner Scotty McCreery is one of this year’s inductees into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Former American Idol winner Scotty McCreery is one of this year’s inductees into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

▪ Steep Canyon Rangers — This Asheville- and Brevard-based bluegrass band formed at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2000 and has since produced nine albums, plus two more in collaboration with Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin). The band’s 2013 album “Nobody Knows You” won the Grammy award for Best Bluegrass Album that year. The band currently has 141,233 monthly listeners on Spotify.

▪ Sylvan Esso — Durham-based Sylvan Esso, an electric pop band, formed in 2013 and consists of duo Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn. They’re multi-time Grammy nominees, including for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for their 2020 album “Free Love.” They recorded an NPR Tiny Desk performance in 2015. The band currently has 1,151,805 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Sylvan Esso, the Durham group made up of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, perform Sept. 30, 2017, at Shakori Hills in Pittsboro, NC.
Sylvan Esso, the Durham group made up of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, perform Sept. 30, 2017, at Shakori Hills in Pittsboro, NC.

▪ Watchhouse — Formerly known as Mandolin Orange, Watchhouse is a Chapel Hill-based Americana-folk duo consisting of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz. The band released their self-titled album, “Watchhouse,” in August 2021 after changing the group’s name, saying the new name meant “so much more” to them personally. The band has currently has 2,853,352 monthly listeners on Spotify.

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