From the minute I wake up in the morning, I turn on the tunes (Picture: Jess Austin/Spotify)

‘In 2022, your total play time was 93,493 minutes,’ my Spotify Wrapped read.  

It might be a stretch to say I can’t live without the music app, but my life would definitely be bleaker without it. 

Those minutes tot up to a pretty impressive 64.9 days of boogying around my flat, catching up on podcasts during my commute, or singing pop classics in the shower, with my toothbrush as a microphone. 

And while all my friends were taken aback by that stark figure, I was honestly surprised it wasn’t higher. 

From the minute I wake up in the morning, I turn on the tunes. 

For my 45 minute cycle into work, I pop in a solo headphone and one of my beloved playlists on a low volume. When dealing with a tricky edit at work, it’s not uncommon for my team to hear me say, ‘I’m just going to take half an hour to plug in and crack this’. 

The headphones are still there during toilet breaks and tea runs. 

After work, they’re back in at the gym but they come out at home, where I blast tunes on the speakers as I cook dinner, catch up on housework and life admin. 

If I’m struggling to get to sleep, I’ll set up a timer and click play on a favourite podcast – something like No Such Thing as a Fish, or You’re Dead to Me – knowing I can pick up where I left off later. 

Bring on 100,000 minutes for 2023 (Picture: Jess Austin)

I’m quite an anxious person, with my thoughts always running, and I find blaring music a good way to quiet them. 

And I’m not fussy. I pretty much love everything… except what I’d describe as macho, weightlifting music. 

Classic? Put on Gymnopedie 3 and I’m there. Pop? You can bet I know all the words to Padam Padam. Metal? Suicide Season is a fantastic album. Rap? Dave is a lyrical genius. Musicals? Grime? Drum and Bass? 60s? I want it all playing, all of the time. 

Which is part of the reason I love Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature so much. I know that every week I’m going to be presented with 30 songs I’ve never heard before, a decent chunk of which I’ll love. 

It’s how I’ve come to learn about and adore so many artists I wouldn’t likely have heard about. It’s definitely how I came across Loyle Carner, after No CD was recommended to me years ago. Others include Arlo Parks, Joy Crookes, Jelani Blackman, Col3trane, Bru-C, Billie Marten, Alexandra Savior. 

I now count these artists among some of my absolute favourites and I’m so grateful that every time I sit down to listen to my Discover, there’s the potential to find the next song I just can’t stop playing. 

Festify’s findings about Jess’s most listened-to artists (Picture: Jess Austin)

While I haven’t got massively into the swing of using their new AI DJ feature, I think it’s a really fun addition and another great opportunity to find new music. 

One thing I do like is that it groups together tunes by genre, making it a bit less chaotic than hitting shuffle on all 8,246 of my liked bops. 

I’m also a big fan of the option to bring up the song’s words and sing-a-long (if you so wish), or if you just want to correct your long-held assumptions about a song’s lyrics. 

Up until that feature, like Clara Amfo, I thought Gala’s Freed From Desire was singing about ‘his trombolise’, rather than ‘strong beliefs’. 

Aside from daily listening, I mainly use Spotify for making playlists. 

On January 1 of every year, I start a playlist, consistently adding my new favourite tunes. It kind of negates the Wrapped end of year roundup, but it’s nice for me to keep track as the months go on of songs I’ve loved listening to. 

They don’t necessarily need to be new releases (Doris Day’s Move Over Darling is on my 2023 list), and some of them could have even been in my liked songs for years (Bless the Telephone Labi Siffre) but I’ve just found I’ve connected to them recently. 

But most of them are new additions to my library and some of my recent repeats include A Colours Show version of Doechii’s Stressed, Ethel Cain’s American Teenager and Fenchurch St by KwolleM and Joe James. 

Not only do I have that ongoing playlist, but many others. We have ‘Gym’, ‘Dinner Party’, ‘Pop Girlies’, and ‘Nice Piano Stuff’; there’s one that just uses the smiley face emoji, another the sparkle emoji, and one of my most played, whose name is the dancing emojis, is full of Otis Redding, Bobby Womack, Shuggie Otis and Al Green.

I make countless playlists as a way of showing my love for my family and friends. 

I’ve spent hours curating one to perfectly suit my mum’s work Christmas party; another for a friend who told me she played it on a first date to a bunch of compliments about her ‘cool’ music taste; one, called ‘trashy pop hits for an absolute gem of a woman’ was pulled together for a mate going through a brutal breakup. 

Music is so personal, and forming these mixtapes is my way of saying, ‘I know you, I’m thinking of you, these familiar songs remind me of the times we’ve had, and these new ones are what I think you’d like’. 

So yes, while I could very much live without Spotify, I honestly do think my life is made just that bit better by having it as my constant companion. 

Bring on 100,000 minutes for my 2023 Wrapped. 

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‘In 2022, your total play time was 93,493 minutes,’ my Spotify Wrapped read.