The Burden I Carry with Me; Apple Music User Tells All

I woke up on a dark and dreary day. I could tell something was brewing, but I wasn’t sure what. Immediately when I checked my calendar, I knew… today was December 1st, the worst day of my life.

Spotify Wrapped had just been released, and all my friends were eagerly swiping and skimming through their personal statistics of the music they had listened to in 2021. They compared the amount of new genres they’d heard, the minutes they’d spent listening, and other aspects of their Spotify using habits. It even revealed their “musical auras”; were you whimsical and comforting, or angsty and yearning? I watched in silence, irritated as they proceeded to discuss their top songs and artists. Begrudgingly, I took out my phone and accessed Apple Music Replay, Apple Music’s version of Spotify Wrapped. All it does is show me my most recently played songs. Like ‘kay? I already know that I played Airplanes by B.O.B. last week! What else is new? I mean where’s the humor? Where’s the creativity?! I’ll tell you where. No where! But what’s worse, is that this is just one of the many instances I had encountered as an Apple Music user.

Many apps, ones for editing/creating video content in particular, allow for their users to add their own music in their content, however, only if said music had been bought on Itunes or streamed from Spotify. Apple Music users get no say in the matter! Can you imagine how lame my flipagrams were because I had to use their free songs? There are also dozens of websites with games based on what music you stream, but of course they are catered only to Spotify users.

On top of all the fun privileges I’m deprived of, I’m also ashamed of my identity. When people ask me to add their playlists, I stutter to explain my circumstances. My finger bolts to lower my screen brightness whenever I skip a song in fear that someone might see. My music listening habits have been shamed, laughed at, even pitied. My name is Ella Morgenstern, and this is my life as a teenage Apple Music user.