Apple Music has been doing annual reviews for a while now, looking at the songs you’ve listened to in the year and highlighting your most listened to albums and artists for a good summary of twelve months of music. I’m always disappointed in my Music reviews though, because I don’t listen to enough variety or repetition (outside of musicals) to make it worthwhile. A lot of my listening happens via someone else’s device and a HomePod, so they get all the credit.

However, Apple Books, now that is something I am making the most of, and the new 2024 review has some very interesting summaries. It’s not entirely accurate because I do some reading and listening of audiobooks outside of the app, so where it says 54 books this year, my count is significantly higher.

You can go in and mark books as finished if they are in the Apple Books store but you have actually bought and consumed them elsewhere. I did start doing this but it was a bit of a thankless task, so I didn’t bother finishing. Maybe next year I’ll try and be more vigilant as it would be good to have even more accurate data pulling through to these reviews.

Audible also do a year in review but as I use that to listen to things as I drift off to sleep, it’s even less accurate… my most listened to audiobook is actually a familiar one read by someone with a very relaxing voice, not necessarily indicative of its quality!

These things are all fun but ultimately I use this site itself as the official record and is my best resource for looking back over a year. If you don’t have a space on the web yourself yet, I highly recommend it!