Topline

Spotify users criticized the streaming platform on social media for a disappointing 2024 Wrapped package, which they said was marred by a longer than usual wait time, disappointing features and a lack of stats compared to other music streamers.

Important facts

Main critic

Many social media users expressed their displeasure with this year’s edition of Wrapped in the comments section of Spotify’s recent Instagram post announcing the release of Wrapped. “I’m sorry, but what was that??” One of the top comments says, “Liked” more than 5,000 times. Another user said: “It’s so boring this year. “I was expecting something interesting,” while another said, “We need top albums and genres,” claiming Apple Music’s playback feature is better than Spotify’s this year. In a post on This year’s version compares favorably to features available in previous iterations. “This must be fake, this is actually the worst Spotify packaging ever as far as graphics and data go,” said another X user, racking up 28,000 likes. One TikTok user posted a video that was liked more than 353,000 times and declared: “This was actually one of Spotify’s worst wraps.” As if it was so obviously AI. They couldn’t even be bothered to include top genre like they have been doing for YEARS.”

Important background

Spotify tends to add new features with each Wrapped edition – which this year includes the AI ​​Podcast and “Music Evolution” – but features that were only available in previous years have gone viral online and seemed popular better received by users. Last year, Spotify told users what their “sound city” was, a city that their listening habits most closely match, prompting users to compare their cities and investigate why they were assigned a particular city. On last year’s Wrapped release day, cities like Burlington, Vermont and Berkeley, California were trending as many LGBTQ users suspected that these cities were associated with queer artists and listeners. Others joked that they felt left out because they were given seemingly less popular cities like Flagstaff, Arizona and Madison, Wisconsin. Features released in previous years include a user’s hearing aura and hearing personalities inspired by the Meyers-Briggs personality test.

Surprising fact

Spotify laid off 17% of its workforce in December 2023, the largest of three rounds of layoffs for the streaming platform last year. CEO Daniel Ek said at the time, “Economic growth has slowed dramatically” and “Spotify is no exception to this reality,” explaining that the company would undergo a “strategic realignment.”

News Peg

Spotify Wrapped became available to users on Wednesday morning. The streaming platform announced that Taylor Swift was the most streamed artist of the year and her album “The Tortured Poets Department” was the most successful album of the year. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” was the most streamed song this year, while Joe Rogan was the biggest podcaster.

Further reading

Spotify Wrapped is available: How to access it – as Taylor Swift reigns as top artist (Forbes)