Music players have been keeping play counts since before the invention of the iPod. It's a datapoint that users have come to expect. I actually wish services like Spotify or Apple Music did a better job of displaying this data throughout the year rather than just in end of year infographics.

Like I dunno, Google is literally collating your location data, I hardly think music plays is top secret info.

They need that assigned to specific use accounts so that people can look at their play history. A thing that people often want to do with their music players.

If they did that it would be far too easy for people to boost listens and ratings with bots