Why some people got a “Listening Age” of 73 (or older)

I came across an interesting article that is not necessarily genealogy related, but it is related to guessing age.  I thought it interesting and thought I would share my version of the information.

This year, Spotify’s annual wrap-up “Spotify Wrapped” rolled out a new metric called “Listening Age.” Instead of reflecting how many birthdays you’ve actually celebrated, this number is a playful approximation of “how old your taste in music is.”

Here’s how it works (according to Spotify itself):

1. They look at the release dates of *all* the songs you listened to during the year.

2. They find the five-year span of music during which your listening diverged significantly from others in your age group — i.e., music you engaged with *more than people your age on average.

3. Then they map that period to a hypothetical “reminiscence bump” — assuming you would’ve been 16–21 years old when those songs originally came out.

4. Finally, they reverse-engineer a “current age” based on that assumption. For instance: if your most-listened period was the late 1970s, Spotify might peg you at around 63 today — because that would correspond to someone who was a teen back then.

So if your Wrapped claims you're 73, that suggests your top listening window was music from roughly 1960s–70s — in other words, Spotify’s saying your musical soul was hanging out with baby-boomers.

Why it feels weird — and why it’s funny

Unsurprisingly, the “Listening Age” has sent many users into fits of laughter, confusion, or light existential dread. For young listeners (teens, 20-somethings), getting a 70s-style age often feels hilariously off — yet somehow… right for their retro-leaning playlist. Social media is full of memes and jokes about being musical “grandparents” overnight.

Similarly, older folks sometimes find themselves surprisingly young — a 60-year-old user might have a listening age of 21 if they mostly played music from the 2010s.

For many, the absurd mismatch between actual age and Listening Age becomes the point: it’s a cheeky reflection of how eclectic and intergenerational streaming tastes can be — not a serious estimate of your birth year.

What the “Listening Age” is really for

It seems the feature isn’t meant as serious analytics — but more as a **conversation starter**. It leverages nostalgia, generational identity, and the element of surprise to get people talking (and sharing). The psychological concept behind it — known as the “reminiscence bump” and suggests that many of us feel most connected to music from our teenage/young-adult years. Spotify simply flips that insight into a playful “age-measuring” tool based on your listening data.

Wrapped has long been part scoreboard, part social ritual — and Listening Age adds a quirky twist to that. As one writer put it: sometimes, the fun is in being a 73-year-old 23-year-old.

Should you take it seriously?

Probably not. Because:

·         The age is based on listening habits, not real age.

·         It assumes your most-listened music era matches when you were 16–21 — which may not reflect reality, especially if you’re browsing across decades or sharing an account.

·         It’s as much a marketing / social-sharing feature as a music-taste gauge — built for fun, surprise, and conversation.