It’s time to reveal the results of what music I listened to the most in 2025! I’m going to take you through the end-of-the-year stats for my personal music library, Spotify Wrapped, and YouTube Music 2025 Recap. To be honest, there isn’t anything seriously unexpected if you’ve been following along with my YouTube Music recaps this year, but there are still a few surprises sprinkled in here and there.
Personal Music Library
I had a very fruitful year when it comes to growing my music collection. While I added almost exactly the same amount of songs that I got in 2024 (518 vs. 516), this year felt different because I was able to buy more songs and complete some albums from iTunes and Amazon’s Download Store. I also discovered the joy of buying used CDs from eBay, which resulted in seven album purchases from NCT 127 and WayV. And of course, Freegal was still in play.
This year’s stats cover November 2024 to November 2025. I stopped the list at twelve songs rather than ten because I had a couple of ties.
XLOV has the most songs on the list with three: “Bizness” (#3), “I’mma Be” (#4), and “1&Only” (#6). I’ve bought all of their singles and EPs thus far because they are fan-tas-tic. Their music has been strong, with each song showing a different side of them as a group and giving each member time to shine. On top of that, they’re so unique, fun, and empowering. I appreciate how they stay true to themselves, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I enjoy their awesome outfits, immaculate make-up, and imaginative nails during their comebacks. Hopefully this group continues to soar.
The second highest amount of songs (two) is split between NCT’s Ten and WayV, the NCT unit that Ten belongs to. Ten ranks with “Sweet As Sin” (my overall top song) and the lead single “Bambola” (my runner-up song) from his second solo EP, Stunner. I bought that no-skip album shortly after its release because, as you know, Ten is one of my NCT ults and an auto-buy. Meanwhile, WayV ranks with “Deep Ocean” (#8) from The Highest, their first Japanese EP, and “On My Youth (English Version)” (#9) from their first full-length album of the same name. I’ve been building up my collection of their music, so those two faves were amongst the first ones I grabbed.
The five remaining slots belong to individual artists: Enhypen, ATEEZ, NCT’s Mark (featuring Haechan), TXT, and Baekhyun. They each rank with one song. Of the entries, the only song I’ve never discussed elsewhere is ATEEZ’s “Masterpiece” from their Golden Hour: Part 3 EP. This deep cut isn’t that high on the list (#10), but that doesn’t negate its immense impact on me. It’s one of those chill-sounding dirty songs that you can’t help but vibe to. It’s so good.
Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped 2025 was released on Wednesday, December 3rd.
I’m happy to say that it’s a lot more interesting than whatever that mess was last year, though my stats in some areas are still somewhat inaccurate because shuffle mode is the default when you’re a non-subscriber like me.
Overview
I listened to Spotify for 2,250 minutes, or 37.5 hours. That’s less than half the time that I logged last year. Clearly, I spent more time on YouTube Music and with my own music library than on this service.
My Listening Age is a newly introduced metric. I got 21 years old, which carries the description, “Since I was into music from the Early 2020s.” I guess this age is calculated from when the music I listened to the most came out. If everything comes from recent years, logic follows that I would probably be a younger listener. This whole thing is nuts because my true age is almost double my listening age. At the same time, it’s pretty accurate because that’s about how old I feel most days.
Another new metric is the Cosmic Stereo Club. I don’t understand what that’s about, but my role is “Collector” because I “often save music to [my] library, building a large club collection.” That, too, is accurate. I’m always saving songs that I like for easier access and better recommendations.
Top Genres
My Top Genres are very diverse. Spotify says that I listened to 23 genres in total. Wow! Unfortunately, I really need a complete breakdown of them all because my top five doesn’t really reflect that diversity.
K-Pop is at number one. Naturally. But then the list jumps to some never-before-seen genres. I started listening to Thai music this year—thanks to artists like Jeff Satur, JASP.er, LYKN, BUS, and Proxie—which explains why slight variations of the genre dominate the rankings: Thai Pop (#2), Thai Hip Hop (#4), and T-Pop (#5). It was nice to branch out and try new things. The only question mark is UK Garage (#3). I seriously have no idea where that genre came from. Who could I have possibly listened to that falls into that category??
Speaking of diversity of a slightly different sort, Spotify names August 2, 2025 as my “Most Diverse Day.” In other words, it’s “The day [I] spun through K-Pop’s multiverse in under an hour” and “every spin in a different shade of the genre spectrum.” Apparently, I listened to a bunch of K-Pop artists with varying styles of music. Sounds about right!
Top Artists
This year’s Top Artists contains three NCT units, ZEROBASEONE, and THE BOYZ—all of my faves. I can get behind that!
My number one artist is WayV. They are one spot higher that they were in 2024. According to Spotify, I listened to them for 306 minutes (about five hours). That puts me in the top 2% of their global fans. I think this was before I bought more of their music because I was trying to determine which of their albums I wanted to get first.
Moreover, Spotify identifies July 20, 2025 as my “Biggest WayV Day.” That’s “The day [I] let WayV run the whole show before lunch.” WayV Day lasted for 65 minutes and 20 songs. I remember that day! I listened to them one morning while I was washing dishes. And yes, I shook my groove thang the whole time.
ZEROBASEONE, my number four artist, is mentioned in another big day, my “Biggest Music Listening Day” on September 30, 2025. That was “The day [I] let EXO and ZEROBASEONE run the evening relay.” I’m still holding my breath that we’ll get more time with that group, in one form or another. They’ve really grown near and dear to my heart.
Top Songs
Spotify reports that I listened to 429 songs on the service this year. To my delight, my five Top Songs all come from NCT units. Please remember my prior note about this list’s accuracy, though.
WayV’s “Nectar” is my top-played song with eight streams. Last year, this song was my runner-up. As much as I love it—it’s definitely one of my faves from WayV—it’s an older track that doesn’t appear on any of my other lists. In fact, its play count wouldn’t be enough to crack the top ten of the rankings for my personal music library list. Again, this is no reflection on the song itself. I’m just putting things into perspective.
Top Albums
I only have one top album for 2025: Wonho’s Syndrome. That’s because it wasn’t until late in the year that Spotify began to allow free users to stream full albums. Syndrome is where I started.
Man, Wonho did the damn thing on this one! It’s his first full-length album, it’s fully in English (which I wasn’t expecting), and it’s stuffed with hits fitting the themes of love and heartbreak. There are no bad tracks here. “Better Than Me,” the pre-release single, immediately captured my attention upon its release and remains my overall favorite song. Wonho serves ’90s boy band realness, with his signature seductive vocals and even hotter visuals. There’s something about “Top of the World” that sticks in my head too. I’m proud of him for finding his perfect sound and absolutely working it.
YouTube Music Recap
In addition to my year-end recap, I’m going to briefly cover my Fall Recap, which I didn’t get to finish in its own post, and a few music-related details from my YouTube Recap.
2025 YouTube Recap
This year, YouTube began an end-of-the-year recap for its video service too.
Although the YouTube Music recaps include info about the music videos you’ve watched in its stats, this recap covers your YouTube videos in general. They include some interesting music tidbits that I wanted to share.
First off, the service assigned me the personality trait of “The Wonder Seeker.” It is described as, “You’re drawn to awe-inspiring content that show extraordinary skills,” specifically mentioning my love of K-Pop. Of course that’s true! A huge part of why I like K-Pop is because of the performances and music videos. I love me some impressive choreography. These artists put so much energy and heart into it all. Not just anybody can pull that off.
Second, YouTube designates me as a “Music Lover,” which is described as, “You really enjoy exploring different genres of music, from K-Pop to R&B.” That goes without saying. When I’m not watching K-Pop videos, I’m watching old school R&B ones. I can’t imagine my life without music.
Third, it says that I watched 164 channels. I can tell you that the majority of those are related to K-Pop and J-Pop. I subscribe to every artist I like and often their record label’s channel as well. When it comes to my top five channels, four of the five are for K-Pop, with SMTOWN in second place. Even though I have tons of issues with that company, my love for NCT and so many of its other artists is undeniable.
Finally, my YouTube Award is “Most likely to have the perfect playlist for any mood and occasion.” Umโฆthis one doesn’t quite fit. I don’t make many playlists, and when I do, they are very basic and unimaginative, like collecting the music videos for an artist’s title tracks. I appreciate YouTube’s confidence in my musical knowledge, but that’s a nope.
Fall 2025 Recap
My Fall “Recap” was released on Monday, November 24. There are no extra stats besides the top songs for this season, of course. Based on the calculations from my total listening time, I know that I listened for 1,071 minutes during the season. That is less than half of what it was during the summer and significantly less than what it was in 2024.
My top track was Enhypen’s “Bad Desire (With Or Without You).” Color me shocked! This song was also my top summer track and (spoiler alert) it will pop up again later on my list. I bought the song shortly after it came out, so I don’t stream it much anymore. Obviously, the music video is still getting plenty of play from me, though.
2025 Recap
My 2025 Recap was released on the same day as the fall playlist.
I had been expecting it on the 21st, the previous Friday, because it came out on the 20th in 2024. When that didn’t happen, I figured it would come out the following week. So, I wasn’t too pressed about it.
Overview
I listened to YTM for 10,877 minutes, or ~181 hours. That’s 6,438 fewer minutes than last year. It sounds bad, yeah, but I already explained the perfectly valid reasons behind that drop in my last recap.
YTM added one fun new metric: 2025 Musical Passport. It tracks the countries of origin for the music I listened to the most. It pinpointed the US, South Korea, Japan, China, and Thailand (plus one more that isn’t named). That’s dead on for me!
Beyond that, the only other important miscellaneous info is that my Top Podcast is Divorce Court. I watched for 2,074 minutes. I love that show, no lie. The channel adds a new episode that previously aired on TV every weekday at 6:30pm. I’ve been happily catching up since there was a time when I couldn’t see it on TV in real time.
Top Artists
YTM says that I listened to 194 artists this year. Honestly, I doubt I could even name a third of them if I tried. My top five artists are well-known to me.
Enhypen took the win for first place. I listened to them for 910 minutes in 2025, which puts me in their top 2% of listeners. That tracks. They have ranked second (winter), fourth (spring), and first (summer) place on my Top Artists lists during the year. Additionally, YTM says that I listened to them on 96 days this year, with January and June being the heaviest months.
My beloved NCT 127 comes in second. They only ranked once this year—at number four in the summer. But all is not what it seems! I haven’t been streaming them as much since I bought most of their albums during my eBay shopping spree. My ults are still getting my love, just not as visibly as they did before.
At number three is &TEAM. They were in second place for both the winter and spring seasons. I anticipate them hitting the top spot one day soon if they keep putting out fire songs like their latest hits.
ATEEZ is in fourth. They ranked twice during the year, fourth place in the winter and second place in the summer. They’ve been on point this whole entire year. Song after song, they refused to let me go.
Last, but not least by any means is XLOV. This is their first time appearing as one of my Top Artists, despite the fact that they were all over my Top Songs lists the last few months. As I’ve said before, they absolutely deserve it.
As a side note, I predicted before the recap was released that my top artist would be between Enhypen, ATEEZ, and XLOV. Ha, I was right! All three made the list. Do I know myself or what?
Top Songs
Again, there are no truly unfamiliar entries here. I’ve already mentioned most of these songs (or the artist behind them) somewhere in the post.
&TEAM’s “Deer Hunter,” my top track, is the song that wouldn’t die! It was in fourth (winter and summer), second (spring), and third (fall) place in my Top Songs during 2025. I listened to it for 238 minutes, which puts me in the top 2% of listeners. I absolutely need to add this one to my personal library soon. That might be the only way I’ll get it out of my system.
XLOV has two entries with “I’mma Be” (#2) and “BIZNESS” (#4). The former was number one in the winter, while the latter was number three in the summer. These two songs show the clear progression of my interest in them, the very beginning (their debut) and the very first peak (my favorite song so far). It’s so cool to have a visual representation of my EVOL history.
Then there’s Enhypen, who have “No Doubt” (#3) and “Bad Desire (With Or Without You)” (#5). I did not expect “No Doubt” to show up! It was my runner-up top track in the winter, and then it fell off the lists because I bought it. As always, I’m guessing that repeated viewings of the music video are the reason for its high ranking right now. Admittedly, I was a bit obsessed with their outfits in that video, especially the black leather ones at the end.
Top Albums
While NCT’s members and subunits dominated the album rankings this year—applause, applause—there was a shock or two along the way.
THE BOYZ Unexpected landed on top. Whoo! I talked about it in the spring when it was my top album. Everything I said back then remains true. That is just a top tier album that only gets better with repeated listens.
One of my NCT ults, Haechan, has my second top album with Taste. I’ve been anxiously awaiting his solo debut for YEARS. His voice holds emotions like nobody’s business. He could sing random names from the phonebook and make me feel something. Taste is everything I’d hoped for. “CRZY” was the perfect lead single, with its funky pop with an edge of R&B vibe. Very reminiscent of Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You.” Meanwhile, the rest of the album showcases a throwback to mid- to late ’90s R&B. “Roll With Me,” which is so relaxing and romantic, stole my heart the most. Looking forward to the next one!
Then in third place is NCT Wish’s latest Korean EP Color. I think this is the first time the Wishes have officially graced my list. I’m glad because I love them just as much as the other NCT units. I’ve been like a proud parent watching them fully grow into their Neo-ness. Color was another hit. I liked all of the bouncy songs—they’re pros at making cheery bops—but the sappier tracks “Baby Blue,” “WICHU,” and “Reel-ationsip” are the ones that hit me the hardest.
In fourth place is Ten’s first Japanese EP. I spoke about this one back in the Spring Recap when it was at number two. It’s still not my favorite album of his, but I don’t completely hate it either.
Now, my fifth place album is Mariah Carey’s latest, Here For It All. This is the first time in a long time that an American artist has ranked here, though in hindsight I shouldn’t be surprised. Mariah is one of my favorite artists of all time. If she’s putting out an album, I’m all for it. This new one, which I wore out on release day, is amazing, totally worthy of her legacy. From beginning to end, I was charmed. I can’t even pick a favorite. I bow down to the queen.
Conclusion
So, that was 2025! I would say it was a good year for music. The fact that the same songs kept popping up shows how much I enjoyed some of the releases. Some artists were truly on their A-game. I hope this new year will be even better.
That said, I intend to do these recaps a little differently this year. As much as I enjoy sharing my musical journey, I feel like I spend so much time writing these recaps that I don’t have time to write anything else. Right now, the plan is to combine the seasons somehow. Right now, I’m thinking of doing posts for Winter/Spring, Summer/Fall, and Year-end—and only cover the top entry in each category. I might even go as far as doing only two posts, one for all of the seasons and one for the end of the year. Either way would be a good compromise. We’ll see how it goes.