Every year, Spotify releases “Wrapped,” producing a set of engaging infographics informing users about their listening activity in the past year. The app reports users’ top artists and songs, along with other metrics. Other streaming services such as Apple Music and YouTube Music release similar end-of-year recaps. The Flat Hat asked 221 students at the College of William and Mary to share their results. Here’s a look at what students at the College listened to in 2024.
This year, our respondents’ listening range of artists was wider than in 2023. Last year, our survey placed Taylor Swift with a significant lead, with 56 respondents reporting her as their top artist. In 2024, out of respondents’ 144 different top artists, Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny tied for the most listeners at 3 each.
Sydney Sacha ’26 was among the respondents that listed Taylor Swift as their top artist.
“I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift for a while and I think I’m going to keep listening to her in the coming years,” Sacha said.
Out of the streaming services that report listeners’ top albums, Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” was the most common top album in the survey results. Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter,” Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” were tied for the second most common top album at the College.
Last year, students collectively listened to 8.5 million minutes of music, while this year, respondents reported a total of 9.5 million minutes. The class of 2026 reported the highest average minutes listened at 50,145. The class of 2025 reported the least listening in 2024, with just 41,876 minutes of listening, on average.
This year, Spotify did not report top genre data to its listeners. As a result, the only respondents that could provide that information were users of Apple Music and other streaming platforms. From this group, pop emerged as the most popular genre among those surveyed. This genre was followed by rock, alternative, hip hop and country as other popular genres.
In 2024, our respondents clocked in 9.5 million minutes, listening to 221 different artists in many different genres. For many students listening to music is a way to unwind, to focus or to simply enjoy themselves. Most respondents primarily listened to music while commuting. The least amount of students used music for studying.
The data featured in this story was collected by The Flat Hat Data Section in a survey conducted online during the period of December 4, 2024 to December 19, 2024. Participation in this survey was voluntary, and responses were anonymous unless respondents opted to self-identify. The survey was distributed via Flat Hat social media, the William and Mary Student Happenings Newsletter and by word of mouth. Members of The Flat Hat staff were permitted to take the survey provided that they were not involved in the writing or editing process of this article. In total, 221 respondents completed the survey, representing 3.05% of William and Mary’s total undergraduate student body.
