Spotify has once again captured the public's attention with the release of its annual Wrapped report, a personalized deep dive into user listening habits. The 2025 edition, however, has generated unprecedented buzz by introducing a novel metric: your 'listening age.' This playful feature estimates how old you are based on the music you stream, leading to a flood of social media shares and surprising revelations, including from prominent Canadian political figures.
What Is Your Spotify Listening Age?
The concept of a 'listening age' is based on the psychological phenomenon known as the 'reminiscence bump.' This refers to the tendency for people to form the strongest emotional connections with music from their adolescence and early adulthood, typically between the ages of 16 and 21. Spotify's algorithm analyzes a user's most-played tracks to identify a five-year span of music they engage with more intensely than other listeners their actual age. The platform then playfully hypothesizes that this period represents their formative listening years and calculates a corresponding age.
For example, as Spotify explains, if you listen to a disproportionate amount of music from the late 1970s compared to your peers, the service might assign you a listening age of 63. This assumes you would have been in that key 16-21 age range when those songs were popular.
Canadian Politicians Join the Conversation
The feature quickly became a topic of conversation across Canada, with even federal politicians sharing their results. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is 60, was asked by a reporter about his age. With a grin, he responded '44'—his Spotify listening age—in an Instagram post.
Similarly, Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, 41, shared her result on the platform X. Her assigned listening age was 23. She captioned the post: 'Late-stage Millennial by birth, Gen Z cusp by playlist.' Her post highlighted the generational fun many are having with the feature.
Reactions from the general public have been mixed. While some wear their younger listening age as a badge of honour, others who received a much younger score have humorously blamed their children's musical tastes, according to reports from the New York Times.
Top Artists of 2025 and Canadian Favourites
Alongside the personalized listening age, Spotify unveiled its global and Canadian charts for the year. Bad Bunny reclaimed the title of the world's most-streamed artist in 2025 with over 19.8 billion streams, interrupting Taylor Swift's two-year reign. The global top five was rounded out by Swift, Canadians The Weeknd and Drake, and Billie Eilish.
In Canada, the list of top-streamed artists had a distinct homegrown flavour. The ranking was led by Drake, followed by Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, The Weeknd, and Kendrick Lamar.
It is important to note that Spotify's data collection for the Wrapped report runs from January 1 to approximately mid-November. This allows the company time to compile the recap for a December release but means year-end holiday hits or late-breaking songs are not included in the analysis.
Now in its tenth year, Spotify Wrapped has evolved from a simple summary into a major cultural moment. By introducing engaging metrics like the 'listening age' and last year's 'listener city,' the platform successfully encourages users to share their results widely, driving conversation and engagement across social media.