Spotify users around the world waited excitedly through the month of December for the release of the Spotify Wrapped. The feature, which started in 2016, recaps users’ top artists, songs and more. However, this year’s Wrapped, which was highly anticipated after many teasers from Spotify, came with mixed reactions.
Many listeners have voiced that their 2024 statistics weren’t accurate. Wrapped tracks users total minutes listened to, but stops tracking around mid-November to leave room for quality assurance. Sophomore Marina Boskoska believes her Wrapped was drastically different from what her actual stats should be.
“I felt like it mainly focused on what I listened to for the first half of the year,” Boskoska said. “Looking back on my Spotify Wrapped, it just reminds me of a lot of stuff I really liked in April and May, but there’s nothing recent.”
The Spotify Wrapped usually includes different features that make looking stats more fun for listeners. In 2023, Wrapped included a map that labeled what city your listening habits were most like. Then in 2018, Wrapped contained information about the astrological signs of the user’s top artists. This year, those fun inclusions are seemingly absent. Sophomore Elle Aiken describes how she felt this year’s Wrapped was more boring than those in previous years.
“This year’s Wrapped felt very basic,” Aiken said. “There weren’t any interesting features and nothing new. I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone, ‘Hey! Look at what’s on Wrapped this year!’ since it was just so similar to last year.”
Another feature included yearly is video messages from the user’s top artists. This feature gives Spotify users a unique way to interact with their favorite artists and a feature different from other streaming platforms. While making a video is optional for an artist, many still take it as an opportunity to say thank you to their fans.
“I really enjoyed seeing my top artists’ messages,” Boskoska said. “My top artist didn’t make a message, so it was nice that I still got to view the videos from the rest of my top five. Even if it also went to a bunch of other people, it still felt somewhat personal and it’s super fun to see a new message each year.”
As AI usage keeps becoming more popular around the world, the technology continues to be incorporated into different platforms. In this year’s Wrapped, Spotify created an AI podcast to recap select listeners’ stats. Many have complained that this feature is the cause of a mundane Wrapped, adding that the AI playlist had little personality and felt lifeless.
“[Wrapped] having an AI playlist didn’t feel right to me,” Boskoska said. “I didn’t have an interest in it in the first place, but it was weird that it was pretty much made by a robot. Having something artificial summarize the music that was made by real people in real life is so weird.”
While 2024’s Spotify Wrapped wasn’t what many expected it to be, some users continued to enjoy their recap. When the feature comes back in 2025, some listeners hope the backlash over this year’s Wrapped will encourage developers to bring back interesting metrics.
“I’m excited for next year’s recap because I know it just has to be better than this years,” Aiken said. “Hopefully now Spotify knows how [listeners] expect Wrapped to be.”
