At the end of every year, my music-obsessed friends and I excitedly await the arrival of Spotify’s annual Wrapped release. I and many others appreciate the unique ways the feature uses our music listening history to categorize our taste with specific personality traits and feelings. We obsessively check for its release at the end of November and beginning of December. This year, it seems that what was in store for us was disappointment.
The 2024 Spotify Wrapped arrived somewhat later than it usually does, released on Dec. 4. Due to this delay, many Spotify fans expected a Wrapped that took longer for users to go through because more time was put into making it more detailed and creative. Instead, users received a brief 13 slides of basic information and statistics of their listening history, punctuated by AI features. Many were let down by this year’s Spotify Wrapped, finding it to seem lazy and thrown together.
A major complaint that I and many others have about this year’s Wrapped is that it did not provide a personalized report of each listener’s top musical genre. In previous years, this had been a feature that was beloved and anticipated, as each year provided the information in a unique way. The 2022 Spotify Wrapped associated certain genres with the time of day an individual listened to them the most, and the 2023 Wrapped assigned music cities based on users’ frequently listened music genres; this year, there were no features even similar to that.
An aspect of Spotify Wrapped that fans have loved in previous years is that it associated specific music with certain character traits. It is always interesting to think about the way our music taste defines us, and in a way, Spotify Wrapped did that for us. In 2023, Spotify Wrapped provided listeners with an entire slide dedicated to their “listening personality,” a few of which included The Early Adopter, characterized by exploration and variety, and the Replayer, defined by loyalty and familiarity. This was a feature that fans found charming and fun but was noticeably absent from this year’s Wrapped .
By aligning our personalities with our music, Spotify Wrapped was also a unique form of self-expression. Many looked forward to posting their unique results on social media, excited to share such an intimate report of the music that soundtracked an entire year of their lives in hopes that they would be able to bond with others over shared musical tastes.
The graphics of this year’s Wrapped felt especially lackluster in comparison to past years. Prior years had used vibrant neon colors, fun designs and interesting colorways. This year, however, consisted of mostly blocky lines and zig-zags, creating a more industrial, less creative vibe. The color choices felt incohesive, and the designs themselves felt especially lifeless.
Many fans feel the use of AI in this year’s Wrapped was a major factor in contributing to the fact that it felt surprisingly boring and impersonal. The 2024 Spotify Wrapped featured a personalized podcast discussing the individual’s listening history which was completely AI-generated. Many people, including my friends and I, believed this feature to be uninteresting and unnecessary, and was certainly a large reason why Wrapped fell short of so many expectations.
There is rapid discourse in the world today about the integrity of AI art, and whether it can ever recapture the humanity of real, human-made art. While this certainly is up for debate, there is definitely a general consensus that the excitement and charm of Spotify Wrapped was dimmed by AI in 2024. I’m not sure I believe that there is any space for AI within art; to me, the beauty and captivation of art depends largely on its connection to human nature. Art that is generated by AI can never feel truly authentic because it will always lack true humanity.
The use of AI in this year’s Wrapped combined with lazy graphics and a lack of interesting features diminished the heart of the Spotify Wrapped that fans have come to love. The 2024 Spotify Wrapped was a lackluster presentation that left many disappointed in a yearly tradition which had previously brought so much joy.
