It’s safe to say the Spotify Wrapped this year was a total flop. The comments and backlash that Spotify faced this year were more intense than any other.
Most of this backlash was shown on Reddit and X, however TikTok also had a lot of hate flooding through the algorithm.
On X, a particular post earned attention from all around the world. The tweet stated, “Spotify Wrapped flopped this year so bad. Like where are the music cities, the playlists, the top genres or the listening auras… all that wait for WHAT.” This tweet gained 5.5 million views and 155K likes in less than a week.
Spotify Wrapped is an annual feature provided to users who have listened to the app’s music throughout the year. This feature usually presents your top artists, songs, genres, albums, songs played, how many minutes of music you’ve listened to, and special trends that have popped up throughout the year.
The problem with this year’s Spotify Wrapped is that it didn’t contain most of this. This year, it only contained the minutes listened, top songs, artists, songs played, and genres.
The issue is easily noticeable; there were less categories shown this year. However, when you take a closer look at how Spotify presented the information this year, there is an even bigger issue:; the AI usage.
Many users spoke out about this online, including many articles being published specifically for this reason. When journalist Kelly McClure wrote about this topic, for the Yahoo Tech, she mentioned how “There have been more than a few complaints that the long-awaited year-end data dump was surprisingly ‘boring,’ and reeking of AI.”
This was heavily expected since the genre’s that Spotify came out with this year just didn’t make sense. Users would go through their Wrapped until the last couple pages, to just see a genre that has never been used before.
“June was your Pink Pilates Roller Skating Pop moment.” This had all users worldwide asking the question, “What did any of this even mean?”
When students at Patriot High School were asked about the 2024 Spotify Wrapped, many believed that it was very inaccurate. Elizabeth Hartz, a heavy Spotify user, stated “The songs put on to my wrapped didn’t represent me as a person. The artist that I love listening to wasn’t even on it. It was just a random artist that I hadn’t really listened to in a minute. Last years wrapped I feel like was more ‘me.’”
Another student, Maggie LaCasse, expressed her frustration about how inaccurate and lazy the Wrapped would be while counting the “minutes listened to music.” Maggie stated, “I didn’t like it. I have had the same #1 song for three years, and I haven’t listened to that song in forever like I skip it. They literally count the songs even if you accidentally press on it. I have exquisite music taste the end half of this year, but Spotify’s like ‘Nah, I’m only gonna count the first half.’”
Some teenagers also faced annoyance with the number of categories shown. Sophomore Ella Ward stated, “My Spotify wrapped was accurate, but I didn’t like how it looked. It looked boring, and it didn’t have my top albums which I really wanted.” Sophomore Isabella Tenley also agreed with this, stating how, “It was okay, but I didn’t even get what I wanted. I didn’t get my top genre or anything. I just feel like it wasn’t accurate, and they just kind of slacking it this year.”
On the contrary, there were some students who believed that Wrapped was actually accurate. One of these students was sophomore Esme Mergler. Esme stated that, “It was accurate, and I know a lot of people were saying it wasn’t accurate, but I think mine was because my top song was ‘Drive me Crazy!’ by Lil Yachty, and that is my favorite song!”
Some more of the frustration that was shared online had to do with the shortage of workers at Spotify. In December 2023, Spotify laid off around 1,500 people, which is 17% of their entire workforce. With people knowing this information, many came forward saying that the Wrapped this year was so bad because they had less workers. This would have also explained why Wrapped came out so late, compared to the past couple of years. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, Wrapped came out on November 30. In 2023, it came out on November 29.
Spotify has not confirmed or denied these rumors and allegations, yet many expect them not to do so. In 2025, hopefully Spotify listens to the backlash from this year, and Wrapped can come out better than ever!
