It is that time of the year! As of December 4, Spotify has released Wrapped, A beloved annual tradition that allows Spotify users to view a compilation of their listening activity and share their musical taste with friends on social media. But, unlike with previous years, many were left unsatisfied with their Wrapped.
This year’s Wrapped consists of new features such as an AI generated podcast that gives users a rundown of their listening habits throughout the year and a “Music Evolution” which gives users a selection of creatively titled musical genres. Spotify users were critical of these features and criticized Spotify for its heavy use of AI, claiming that their top artists and songs were not accurate to their listening habits.
I personally thought that Spotify was lazy this year. It left out fun features from previous years, such as giving you your top albums and music genres and matching your musical taste to a specific city. I thought that the “Music Evolution” feature was strange. What do you mean October was my Vampire New Wave Divorced Dad Skateboarding Pilates Princess whatever phase? It just put random words together to create a quirky sentence that did not even describe any of my music genres for that month. I wish that Spotify had made the Wrapped more personalized to each and every person rather than using AI to make generalized statements and inaccurate stats.
A lot of students at THS felt the same way about their Spotify Wrapped.
“It was so underwhelming, and the name genres were too wacky,” Cedric Alvarez (’25) said.
Itay Moran (’25) waited days to view his Wrapped only to be left disappointed with the inaccurate stats and setup that lacked variation.
“Spotify collects so much data on you—your favorite songs and artists, your listening habits, the bpm, key, and the general emotion of every single song you listen to,” Moran said.“This year, Spotify introduced a lot of AI tools in their app, so I kind of hoped that it would use that to make the Wrapped more personalized for everyone or make it more interesting than it was last year. [However,] the only change that we got was the “Taste Evolution,” which is a fun idea, but it seems that everyone has the same eight or so “phases”. I wish that was more personalized to you, [and] I feel like that’s a missed opportunity.”
Anthony Fasano (’25) also expressed his dissatisfaction.
“I wish that it collected last December’s data because I feel it would have changed my whole Wrapped,” he said.
Ash Shoham (’26) also had high anticipation for Wrapped, as they enjoy getting to understand their musical taste and sharing it with other people. Initially, Shoham was impressed by the new design incorporated in this year’s Wrapped. However, their opinions changed after finding out about the feature’s usage of AI.
“When I saw the new design, I was excited at first,” Shoham said. “I thought the color scheme was nicer than last year’s. However, when I saw that Spotify was encouraging users to use AI for features that were quite unnecessary, I was immediately disappointed. I don’t need an AI generated ‘podcast’ about the music choices I made, thank you very much.”
Amidst the controversy regarding the quality of this beloved feature, here are some songs and albums that were global successes this year:
Spotify unveiled its top 10 global artists being Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake, Billie Eilish, Travis Scott, Peso Pluma, Kanye West, Ariana Grande, and Feid. The top 10 songs streamed globally were “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish, “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor and Cris Mj, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, “End of Beginning” by Djo, “Too Sweet” by Hozier, “One of the Girls” by the Weeknd with JENNIE and Lily Rose Depp, “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift, and “Die with a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
The top 10 global albums were The Tortured Poets Department : The Anthology by Taylor Swift, Hit me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish, Short N Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter, Manana Sera Bonito by Karol G, Eternal Sunshine by Ariana Grande, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift, SOS by SZA, Lover by Taylor Swift, Fireworks & Rollerblades by Benson Boone, and finally Starboy by the Weeknd.
Though Wrapped seemed to be a flop for 2024, it is fun to view others’ top artists and songs and maybe discover some new music to try listening to. As 2025 approaches, music fans can only hope Spotify will work to preserve and improve this treasured tradition.
