YouTube Music is readying a ‘Year in Review’ playlist of your top songs

Abner Li | Nov 11 2020 - 10:22 pm PT

YouTube Music looks to be joining its competitors in offering a “Year in Review” playlist to “relive the top songs you listened to.”

These recaps are a beloved part of Spotify and Apple Music. Google’s streaming service lacked a similar offering in the first two years after its relaunch. Subscribers were jealously clamoring for one 12 months ago.

That’s changing in 2020, with one user already receiving the playlist. Once live, it will appear at the very top of the Home feed as “My 2020 Year in Review.” Stark cover art is deployed, with YouTube Music noting what artists are included.

In addition to the personalized offering, Google also has a general Top Songs of 2020 collection, along with Top Pop and Latin. Since these are universal, the links to those three “Top” playlists should work for everyone. There does not appear to be a way to share the custom one.

It’s not clear whether YouTube Music is offering any other infographic or data about your top tunes. Other services build nice visuals that are ideal for sharing. Meanwhile, it seems that YouTube Music is just focusing on individual tracks, and not providing additional artist or album breakdowns.

In terms of launch, Google is slow to release new features, including playlists. It will most likely be widely available sometime this month or at the very start of December.