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Spotify’s “Listening Age” is a shock: Gen Zers love oldies and Boomers love the new
December 30, 2025
Spotify's Wrapped feature is just one of the brilliant ways the company reinforces customer captivity. It has been so successful that Apple Music and Duolingo among others give users a similar year-end report. For the 2025 release, the “Listening age” was debuted – and it has been the most discussed feature.
According to sentiment analysis from Meltwater and survey reporting from Edison Research, in the U.S., of the four generations, only the Millennials have no “audio generation gap.” The rest of us seem to have a bit of “age envy.”
The calculation is a little fiddley, and not confirmed by Spotify, but according to Edison, it is based on the theory that people have the strongest emotional recall of music created between the ages of 16 and 21. Edison says that:
- Spotify analyzes the release years of each individual's top 100 songs, identifying which year has the highest density of streams to determine the “peak” listening year
- The company assumes that listening peaks when a person is ~18 year old
- And then this listening age is compared to real age
And voila! Z's wish they were 47 years older than they are, while Boomers wish they were 49 years younger --which isn't so crazy!
Edison found that 30% of Gen Z discovers music through social media -- like Tik/Tok or Insta. The theory is that Gen Z's audio age calculation is deeply affected by the "vintage" tracks that are promoted on social media platforms.
To read more: Meltwater, Westwood Share of age and Edison's Gen Z report
#managementconsulting #Listeningage #contentdistribution
