Being the mathematical equivalent of those lads who come round the houses selling dish cloths with menaces, any mention of data and metrics tends to send me to the kitchen to hide under the table until it’s safe to come out. But I make an exception for Spotify Wrapped. Say what you like about it – “creepy” and “meaningless” is once music critic’s recent summation – I love Spotify Wrapped.

Informed by algorithms which know what they played over the previous year, as well as when and how often, the music streaming platform produces a personalised, pre-Christmas read out for each of its 226 million paying subscribers.

This comes complete with whizz-bang graphics, neat factoids, moving images, a dose of humour and those all important statistics which tell you cool things such as you’re in the top two per cent of Hawkwind fans worldwide (that’s me, by the way).

In essence, it’s the PowerPoint presentation you always hope to get at staff meetings but never do.

This year my second most-listened-to artist after Hawkwind actually sent me a message thanking me for my support, interest and attention. Yes, it was Taylor Swift. At 57 I’m sure I’m not the oldest Swiftie on the........

© Herald Scotland