For nearly a week, Spotify teased and poked fun at the world for eagerly awaiting the always highly anticipated “Spotify Wrapped.” It seemed as though every day, starting in late November, someone was swearing it would be out the following day, only for that to not be the case. With no real announcement other than a “coming soon” and some cryptic comments from the Spotify TikTok account, millions of eager users were unsure when to expect their year of listening presented for them in a creative and entertaining way they could share with their friends, family, and of course, followers. Even if one keeps their Spotify Wrapped to themselves, it is interesting to see versions of yourself throughout the year flashed back to you with a level of imagination and artistry.
After what felt like a delay, given the past few Spotify Wrapped releases came out in late November, it was expected that they were preparing something much better than previous years. They had the extra time, so 2024 was meant to really blow listeners out of the water, right? Right?
Wrong.
In the past, Spotify would give you your “Audio Aura,” donning you with descriptors such as “wistful” and “focused.” Or you would be assigned your “Listening Personality,” labeling you with something like “The Enthusiast” or “The Time Traveler.” In 2022, Spotify took you through your “Audio Day,” describing your moods at different points in the day. Your mornings could start, for example, with the label, “Comforting,” be met with “Escapism” in the afternoon, and finally finish out the day with “Chill Reminiscence.” In 2023, you were assigned titles such as the “Alchemist” if you were big on making curated playlists or the “Hypnotist”, if you often listened to albums all the way through. This year, however, Spotify failed to even give us our top genres, let alone these fun analyses of ourselves paired with elaborate visuals. It seems Spotify set a high precedent for itself that this year, it severely missed.
So, on December 4th, when I woke up and realized my Wrapped was ready for me, I was naturally excited as a hardcore music lover and avid user of Spotify. As I scrolled through what it had to present, however, I, found myself asking, “Okay, is this it?” Surely, there has to be more. It felt so disconnected from our authentic listening experience. It felt rushed and impersonal. Now, it may be a lot to ask from a music streaming platform who doesn’t necessarily owe us these annual treats to begin with but once they set that precedent in 2019, it’s expected that they don’t turn their back on the paying public going forward. Especially when they seemed to have hyped it up this year more than ever.
What felt so fun and interesting about Spotify Wrapped was the humanness of it all, proven by the very origin of the idea. Spotify Wrapped, as we know it, was a concept presented by a young Black woman named Jewel Ham, who was an intern at Spotify at the time in 2019. She presented the idea on her last day as an intern at the company. She unfortunately but not surprisingly, never got nearly the credit she deserved, nor was paid any dues. It’s a shameful stain on Spotify’s history that deserves acknowledgment on all fronts. It’s also poignant here to note that the very idea was shaped by a young listener who resembled the millions to whom Spotify caters—someone who would know exactly what the general public of music lovers is looking for and would enjoy. It seems we have strayed far from this since they ripped off the idea of an unpaid creative.
This year, instead of giving us these imaginative and innovational categories based on our listening, both unique to us while at the same time connecting us with our community, Spotify relied heavily on AI—lazily donning our libraries with AI-generated podcasts, meant to have computerized voices talk us through our own listening history. It felt almost dystopian. And the people noticed.
It seemed Spotify Wrapped had lost much of its human touch, which is what made it so appealing in the first place. Because AI was so heavily relied upon, making it feel so surface-level and impersonal, many blamed this year's apparent fumble on Spotify's massive layoffs in December of 2023. Last year, Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, announced a 17% decrease in their workforce—just one of three rounds of layoffs that same year. This was done in the name of profitability. It seems as though the use of AI and the lack of real creative thought and imagination was also done for this very sake.
It is disappointing to say the very least and one can only hope this is something they improve upon next year, given the large-scale backlash received. Or could this, however, be only the introduction to a new way for music-lovers to get used to consuming media?
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