On Wednesday, December 4, Spotify Wrapped 2024 was released to listeners for its 9th consecutive year. This occurred roughly a week later than the previous year’s release, leading to high expectations.
Spotify wrapped is a compilation of a listener’s data over the course of the year. Big features include top songs, top artists and top genres. It shares total time spent listening and interesting personality descriptions for each month, such as “Sweater Weather Strut Pop”.
Upon the release, listeners were quick to notice the impersonal data that Spotify had brought to the table. One pressing detail that was included in Wrapped was Spotify’s use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for this year, making data unexciting and impersonal.
Another feature that Wrapped 2024 included was a custom AI podcast about listeners data. AI is widely controversial because it is perceived as the laziest way to present something. AI is capable of providing endless answers in a matter of seconds because it is an artificial being. AI lacks creativity and thoughtfulness. And while it is a controversial tool in itself, it was particularly frowned upon by Spotify users because they felt like their Wrapped was too common, and not true to themselves as a listener.
Spotify Wrapped for the 2025 year begins January 1 and ends on October 31. Listeners feel that failing to track two whole months of the year leads to incorrect data. People’s musical taste changes all the time from favorite songs, to favorite artists, to favorite genres. A song that a user might have enjoyed six months prior in the heat of summer is usually not comparable with the same user in December.
Users complained that while the data was accurate for a past version of who they were as a music lover, often, Wrapped does not define their current selves. This is especially true with categories like Top Songs and Top Artists.
Top Songs includes 5 songs that a user is said to have listened to the most, throughout the year. Many feel their top song was not actually their top song, making things worse. Top Artists is a user’s top 5 musicians over the course of the year. Popular Top Artists include Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan, the Weeknd and Noah Kahan.
Artists who may not be mainstream do not usually end up on Top Artists or Top Songs list, even if they were genuinely supposed to be on the list.
A recurring feature for Wrapped that was excluded this year was Top Genres. Top Genres showed listeners what their favorite genre was and the artists that corresponded with that genre.
Along with Top Genres, 2024 Wrapped lacked another popular feature: Top Albums. A lot of listeners shuffle a specific album from an artist, more than their entire discography. However, compared to Top Genres, listeners found these features were more unique to them and their taste in music.
To wrap up, Spotify Wrapped 2024 was a let down nationwide for listeners. The long wait proved to have been for naught. Spotify listeners feel like Spotify produced an uncreative take on Wrapped this year, having been rushed, ordinary and largely inaccurate to who they were as listeners. AI features degraded the quality of Wrapped, which is a change from the eccentric presentation Spotify typically produces.