After weeks of anticipation, some Spotify users are underwhelmed by Spotify Wrapped, the streamer's personalized annual review feature, with many calling it “boring” or even a “failure.” Masu.
The main complaint is that Spotify prioritized Wrapped's AI podcast over the other smart and creative data stories it typically offers. For example, stories that identify musical personalities, match you with cities that share your musical tastes, and explain the characteristics of music. Take advantage of your “audio aura” and turn your music playback history into a game to share with friends. Some are upset about the lack of more detailed statistics or the exclusion of information they expected, such as popular music genres or popular podcasts. Spotify did not say how it decided which features to include.
On X, many people have been sharing their feedback with the #SpotifyWrapped2024 hashtag, giving their annual reviews of this year's listening history as “boring,” “disappointing,” “disappointing,” “disappointing,” and “disappointing.” ” and so on. more. This hasn't stopped people from sharing screenshots of Wrapped, but scrolling through the hashtag currently yields more complaints than praise.
For example, the top post “Wrapped a flop” has over 108,000 likes as of this writing.
This year, more than any other detail or feature that has made Wrapped appealing in the past, Spotify bet big on its partnership with Google to turn users' Wrapped experience into an AI-powered podcast. One Spotify user specifically pointed out the lack of “weird interactive elements” like “silly personality ratings,” while another user found the new feature “Your Music Evolution” to be “pretty weird.” did. (The latter was repurposing the niche genres that Spotify uses for its personalized daily playlist Daylist as a way to explain how users' music tastes have changed over the years.) )
Image credit: Spotify
What Spotify users wanted was the same type of top genre information as in previous years, the complaint says.
Others found that Wrapped didn't include the top podcasts of 2024, but X's notes that this feature appeared to be available to some podcast listeners and not others. The post shows.
Spotify says users must have at least two top shows for top podcasts to be part of the wrapped experience. A show is eligible if the user watches two unique episodes for at least 60 seconds and watches the show on two different days throughout the year.
Some people say they couldn't find the Wrapped 2024 playlist. It appears in the Wrapped feed in the Spotify app as “Your Top Songs 2024,” but the Wrapped interactive experience itself isn't linked to a playlist, so some people may have missed it.
The graphics and art design used in this year's Wrapped were mixed, with some saying it was “half-baked'' and “really simple,'' while others expressed that they liked it.
AI podcasts also had mixed reviews. Those who had never encountered Google's NotebookLM before were impressed by the technology, but some were concerned about the feature. Spotify likely expected users to share their AI podcasts on social video apps like TikTok, but instead, a perusal of the #SpotifyWrapped hashtag on the app reveals that the feature was introduced this year. A number of complaints have been made about the game's failure to live up to its hype, with some even suggesting that AI was to blame.
Additionally, many users connected their disappointment with Wrapped to Spotify's previous layoffs, speculating that this year's downgrade was related to overreliance on AI and staffing shortages. The company laid off 2,300 people in 2023, which impacted day-to-day operations more than expected, CEO Daniel Ek said.
Although it's a year-end feature, Wrapped has become part of Spotify's day-to-day operations to some degree, as the company told the press earlier this week that work has already begun on next year's Wrapped. Teams across the company are contributing to this effort, including marketing, product, music, podcasts, and audiobooks. However, Spotify declined to say how many people are working on Wrapped.
When asked for comment on how they decided what to include in this year's Wrapped, Spotify said: This is part of Wrapped's secret sauce. ”