Kids Are Ruining Their Parent’s Spotify Wrapped Lists

Music streaming service Spotify just released 2022 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 2022 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 Google Home or whichever smart device you own), then it’s most likely your 2022 Spotify Wrapped looks a lot like some of these parents.

One mom didn’t even bother checking her Spotify Wrapped, knowing that the outcome was going to be pretty bleak (and filled with Encanto songs). “why would I check my Spotify wrapped? I’m a parent, it’s gonna be Encanto. Just 9,000 plays of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” at least half of them bc my kid wanted to hear it,” she joked.

She’s right. Encanto slaps.

While Disney songs and a marathon of Frozen music is sure to be on many parents’ Spotify Wrapped, some other moms and dads were stunned to see that their top song wasn’t music at all, but rather white noise.

Back in October, 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).

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.

“wetting myself laughing at mr bean followed by patrick stump in top artists, i feel like patrick would love that,” one user wrote.

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 2022 Spotify Wrapped yet, head here to find out.