Spotify wrapped came out this year and was met not with excitement, but with confusion. This year’s layout was incredibly different from last year, leaving listeners unsatisfied with their musical results as well as the overall look of the wrap.

Spotify wrapped is an annual review of the music that “ruled your year.” It’s composed of top genres, total listening time, top five songs, and top five artists.

I’m one of those annoying wrapped enthusiasts. I’ll ask everyone who their top artists were and slightly judge whatever they say.

Music can tell you so much about a person, and for Spotify enthusiasts, wrapped is a feature that exposes what you were loving this past year. 

My first impression of spotify wrapped this year was surprising.

Although my listening experience was mostly accurate, my top artist is so offensive that I won’t even say it outloud.

I wasn’t the only person with this issue, the frustration surrounding this year’s top artists was palpable.

Users complained of top artists including Drake, U2, and Taylor Swift, when they hardly remembered listening to those artists in the first place. 

These statistics were even contradicted when users measured their listening habits with other sites like Instafest and even a program under Spotify, Recieptify. 

This discrepancy is only one of the many issues with the running of this year’s spotify wrapped. 

While some issues were apparent as soon as the Wrapped was released, problems had been brewing behind the scenes for a while. 

Spotify had fired a large percentage of their employees this holiday season.

According to Rolling Stone, people blamed 2024’s underwhelming Wrapped on layoffs just days after that 2023’s Spotify Wrapped launch date. Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek announced that these layoffs affected up to 1,500 people.As if this isn’t bad enough, some people are speculating the amount of AI used in the creation of Spotify wrapped this year was higher than advertised. 

It’s no secret that artificial intelligence is becoming more and more used in the mainstream, and users of Spotify are concerned about the possibility that their data was skewed by an experimental database.

Spotify isn’t shy about the use of AI in its applications. The spotify DJ uses artificial intelligence to bring you new and old music in segmented playlists. 

But when it comes to the wrapped this year, users complained that their information was just plain wrong. 

According to INC, It feels like Spotify has lost sight of what people look forward to every year. What used to be personalized and creative is now uniform and boring. 

Spotify used this AI to come up with general themes like “Disco Barbie Roller skater” and “Casual Football Rap.”

These categories are utter nonsense and don’t add anything to the experience.

Spotify also got rid of several beloved features such as top genres and graphics. 

The combination of annoying additions, incorrect data, and underwhelming illustrations created an atmosphere of disappointment. 

Let’s hope that Spotify changes some major features for next year’s wrapped, because the fumble of this year’s experience has frustrated a large number of Spotify listeners.

What Spotify needs to do is pay attention to its listeners. Pure and simple.

Users have been asking for new additions like a musical soulmate feature for years.

The Spotify Community page defines a Spotify soulmate as a feature that shows you the user that most closely resembled your listening habits this year.

Suggestions from fans have been pushed aside for artificial intelligence programs that no one asked for. 

Spotify has a good foundation for wrapped, but the execution this year left a lot to be desired. 

So for 2025, just be careful who you listen to.