Okay, 2024 is almost over. Let’s talk about music one last time. I’ve tallied up my personal library’s stats and received my Spotify Wrapped and YouTube Music (YTM) Recap, so I now know what songs, albums, and podcasts I listened to the most this year.
None of it is surprising, to be honest. I’ve seen all of these names at one point or another during the year. But it’s fun to see how everything played out.
Personal Music Library Stats
I collected data from November 2023 to November 2024, which roughly coincides with the releases of my Spotify Wrapped and YTM Year-End Recap.
Overview
This year, I added 516 songs to my personal library. That’s about 130 fewer songs than last year. I only bought one album and a handful of songs from Amazon’s Download Store, while the rest were collected from Freegal.
I primarily played music on my phone through the Musicolet app, with minimal input from my iPad/iTunes. Every month, I posted my top five songs from the Musicolet app on my Threads account to give you a peek at what I was listening to. As in the past couple of years, I added together the play counts from both places to arrive at my top songs of the year.
Top Songs
I decided to cut my list down to ten instead of my usual 10-16 songs for brevity’s sake. It wouldn’t have made a difference, though. In either scenario, my Top 2024 Songs all came from ATEEZ, Ten, and RIIZE.
ATEEZ ranks with four songs. “IT’s You,” a unit song by Yeosang, San, and Wooyoung from their The World Ep.Fin : WILL album, is #1, my top song of the year. I played it 26 times. If you recall, I waxed poetic about how hard YeoSanWoo killed this song and its accompanying music video when it was my #5 Top Winter Track in YouTube Music. That magic hasn’t waned in the least. It’s just one of those top-tier tracks.
Tied with four songs from his solo EP Ten is NCT/WayV’s Ten. I’ve said it a million times before, but that EP is fabulous. I mean, there are only six total songs on the album. His highest ranking track on my list is “Dangerous” at #3. I spoke briefly about it during my YouTube Music Winter Recap when the EP was one of my top albums. It was a fierce battle given the material, but this song became my favorite on the whole album. It’s peak sexy and sassy Ten, especially when you see how he dances to it in the performance film. Love to see it!
Then there’s RIIZE with two songs. “Love 119” is #4. I don’t talk much about how much I like these guys. But I do. Several of them are former NCT members, which adds a lot of weight in their favor, but more importantly, they’re all excellent performers in their own right. I was ecstatic to be able to collect their Korean discography from Freegal. “Love 119,” in particular, stole my heart. That “Back in my heart/That girl’s a killer” chant is such a charming, catchy hook. The part where Sohee goes off towards the end is vocal perfection. I really felt that.
Spotify Wrapped
This year’s Wrapped came out on Wednesday, December 4th. Everyone was in quite a frenzy for its release. I was too. I’d expected it to be released at the end of November or so since my YouTube Music recap came out somewhat early. I was wrong there. Oh well.
As always, I must remind you that my Spotify stats aren’t that precise. I generally can’t choose individual songs or specific albums because I don’t have a premium account. Therefore, my stats are more of a reflection of what the playlists I listen to the most—namely my Daily Mixes, all of the official NCT playlists, and K-Pop ON!—have randomly played for me.
Overview
Spotify was a little low on stats this year—just the basics, nothing about top genres or anything special like that. It was disappointing, definitely could have been better, but it didn’t bother me nearly as much as it did other people because Spotify isn’t my primary music service.
Here’s what I do know:
- Total Listening Time – 4,316 minutes (down 1,709 minutes from 2023)
- Biggest Listening Day – March 28 with 184 minutes
- Total Songs Played – 622 (up 71 songs)
- Total Artists Played – 152 (up 36 artists)
My total listening time dropped because I spent more time on YouTube Music. It’s interesting that the number of songs and artists changed so much despite the lower times, though. I guess I made the best of my time.
Top Artists
My Top Artist of 2024 is NCT 127! Yay! According to Spotify, I listened to them 442 minutes. That puts me in the Top 4% of listeners worldwide. Last year, they were in second place.
Meanwhile, the rest of the artists are the usual suspects. THE BOYZ fall from #1 to #5, WayV drops from #2 to #3, and NCT Dream rises a spot to #4. OnlyOneOf, who were at #4 last year, sadly exit the list entirely, while NCT U comes in at #3.
Top Songs
My Top Song of 2024 is NCT 127’s “Ay-Yo.” Spotify tells me that I was in the top 0.5% of listeners worldwide for this song. I streamed it 10 times, which would put it squarely outside of my personal library’s rankings. Even though it’s two years old at this point, I definitely still rock to this gem from time to time.
I’m not going to cover the rest of the songs. They are all are older, beloved NCT songs as well that I’ve probably discussed somewhere before. I’ll spare you the gushing.
YouTube Music Stats
It’s been two years with YouTube Music now. It’s not a perfect service, but its problems are fairly minor overall.
I’ve been enjoying my seasonal recaps. Once again, I wrote up summaries of my listening habits for the December-February (winter), March-May (spring), June-August (summer), and September-November(fall) recaps. I like to see how the service incorporates info about my YouTube habits into the recaps along with the music. I’ve developed the habit of watching music video marathons when I’m bored, stressed, or suffering from insomnia. It’s nice to see how that stacks up.
As my primary music service, my YouTube Music stats are the most accurate measure of what I listened to.
Overview
This 2024 Recap appeared on Wednesday, November 20th shortly after midnight, along with my fall playlist. Unlike Spotify, YTM provided plenty of fun facts about my musical year.
Here are the highlights:
- Total Listening Time – 17,315 minutes (down 3,147 minutes from 2023)
- Top Musical Mood – Dramatic 30% (down 6%)
- Top Podcast – Divorce Court Season 26 (199 minutes)
- Musical Character – Hometown Hero (“loyal to the people…I love, keeping my favorites on repeat all year long”)
I think my total listening time went down because of that period of time when I was having headphone difficulties, which I mentioned in my Summer Recap. It’s crazy to see how much damage losing a few days of listening time can cause. Even so, it’s still a fairly high tally for me.
Top 2024 Artists
My top artists are almost the same as last year, though they’re in a slightly different order.
THE BOYZ, who were #4 in 2023, fought their way to the top spot this time around. According to YTM, I listened to 62 of their songs for 21 hours. February was the month that I played them the most. I keep underestimating how much I’ve come to love this group until facts like this are thrown in my face.
NCT is well represented with two units on the list, NCT 127 and WayV. NCT 127, who were previously at #1, fall to #2. That’s not too bad. Meanwhile, WayV stays strong at #3. I was in the top 1% of WayV listeners back in the summer; by the end of the year, I was in the top 0.4%. The addiction continues to grow.
Seventeen remains in the #5 position. That seems appropriate. I was heavily hooked on “Maestro” and its accompanying singles collection, but I wasn’t quite as crazy about their follow-up EP. Everything balanced out from that.
The only difference from my 2023 artists is that NCT (as a whole) were replaced by ATEEZ, who sit at #4. It’s odd to see them here. Since I download all of their Korean music from Freegal, I rarely stream them. My guess is that their ranking comes from either the sheer amount of times I’ve watched their music videos on YouTube or from the dozens of times I’ve streamed their Japanese singles (“Paradigm,” “Royal,” and “NOT OKAY”) that I don’t own yet.
Top 2024 Tracks
My Top 2024 Track is NCT Dream’s “Smoothie.” Absolutely agreed! I know I wore it out, especially the Studio Choom performance video. That song is fantastic. It was my Top Spring Track and my #4 Top Summer Track as well.
YTM reports that I first listened to “Smoothie” on March 25th, the same day that NCT Dream released the song’s parent EP Dream()scape. I listened to it for 246 minutes, and I played it the most during April. At 69 plays, it would outrank all of the play counts from the songs on my personal music library’s list ~2.5 times over.
THE BOYZ have two entries, “Watch It” at #2 and “ROAR” at #4. “Watch It” was my Top Winter Track and my #2 Top Spring Track this year. I’ve spoken about how awesome it is at length before. Then there’s “ROAR,” the song that refuses to leave me alone. It was my #2 Top Spring Track last year, and my #3 Top Winter Track and #3 Top Spring Track this year. I’ll probably see it again sometime next year too.
NCT 127’s “Fact Check” ranks at #3. It was #4 during both the winter and spring periods. This is another song that never gets old. If I’m looking for an energy or mood boost, I can absolutely count on this song to deliver. It kicks in such a satisfying way.
Seventeen’s “Maestro,” which was my #2 Top Summer Track, is now my #5 Top 2024 Track. It’s creative and perfect as the title track for their anniversary collection. I can’t even count how many times I’ve watched the performance version of the music video.
Top 2024 Albums
NCT dominated my top albums. Three of the five albums come from an NCT soloist or unit. I’m so proud of my guys!
At the top of the list is Ten’s solo EP, which was #2 for the winter and #3 for the spring. It was on constant rotation on YTM before I bought it on Amazon. The runner-up is NCT 127’s Doyoung with his beautiful solo album Youth, which was also #2 during the spring. Lastly, WayV is at #5 with their no-skip Japanese EP The Highest. It was #3 in the summer and remained a total banger for the rest of the year.
The only two non-NCT albums on the list are wonderful releases as well. OnlyOneOf’s heartfelt Things I Can’t Say Love EP is at #3. It was previously at #1 in the winter. Then there’s aespa’s amazing Armageddon album, which was #1 in the summer, at #4.
Conclusion
This has been a very good year in music for me. I was constantly entertained. There were admittedly times when the releases piled up on each other and I felt a little overwhelmed. I do need to find a better system for tracking releases, though. Even though I follow all of the Twitter and Instagram accounts, I still manage to miss things. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Bring it all on! My ears loved every second.
I feel like I’ve finally started to diversify a little. I say this practically every year, but it’s actually happening this time. This year saw some girl groups and artists pop up on my lists. I need more of that energy going into the next year. I would also like to see more J-Pop and English-language tunes in the future.
Photo Credit: “Black Corded Headphones With Colorful Books in Between.” @ Stas Knop from Pexels via Canva.com