Listen back on your year with Youtube Music’s new “2021 Recap” feature, rolling out now

Several users on Reddit are stumbling upon a pretty cool feature that’s appearing in Youtube Music right now. A new “2021 Recap” can be accessed through your account image at the top-right of the app and tapping it launches an exciting overview of your “year in music”.

As you can see above in the video from the user who goes by the name pythondrink, the recap feature is about halfway down the list of options in the account menu and is appropriately marked with rewind iconography. Earlier this year, Youtube stopped hosting its annual “Rewind” event where it recapped the greatest content and content producers across its platform, so it’s nice to see some form of it reincarnated here, even if it is for music. Besides, this seems more useful to users.

The page that appears states “Relive your year in music with your favorite songs”, and features a video that’s been compiled with clips from your most listened to songs and artists. Scrolling down presents the user with the “Share your 2021 Recap” section, which shows you which artist, playlist, and album you’ve listened to the much, including how many minutes or playthroughs for each.

It’s honestly pretty cool to see the service counting all of this in the background and then presenting it to you all at once. It truly puts into perspective how much music has been a part of your life. It’s that art form that you appreciate but is so second nature and appropriate for almost any situation. You could say that this recap is the “soundtrack to your life”, so to speak.

In addition to getting a share button here, you’re also given a download icon, so you can listen to the best music you’ve ever heard (literally) offline using Youtube Music’s offline mixtape feature. The rest of the recap shares which song you’ve “worn out the play button on”, how many songs, and what artist you’ve discovered outside of those favorites, and even a segment on how many minutes of video you’ve watched.

It’s interesting to see the company include visual media here because while it’s always been a part of Youtube Music, it’s never really been emphasized. This could be due to the increased focus on giving free background listening to all users and boosting awareness of additional benefits like video for paying subscribers.

I don’t have the feature yet, and it’s likely still rolling out across the board, so you can expect a bit of a wait if you’re not seeing it yet. Here’s a fun experiment – share the highlights of your recap in the comments below once you receive it, including the artist, album, and playlist you’ve listened to the most, and the largest amount of time you’ve listened to a specific song! In other words, which song “wore out your play button” this year? Mine would have to be a toss-up between Thousand Foot Krutch, Skillet, Switchfoot, Utada, and Twenty One Pilots.