Dear Spotify, in 2024, you were a bit lazy. I mean, it’s fine, but you made us wait so long and then gave us this rushed AI-looking Wrapped for the year. It was slightly disappointing that you only recorded the first five months and then said my main genre was something random like “after-hours strut pop.” You can do better.
Spotify Wrapped 2024 was promised to be bigger and better than ever, but it turned out to be more of a letdown than a celebration. The AI-generated layout and style of ‘24 Wrapped was monotone and boring. Sure, it still gave us our top artists, songs, and genres, but the delivery was off. Spotify made it feel impersonal and, frankly, lazy. Considering it was released later than originally intended, this year, Spotify Wrapped felt like an awkward gimmick that missed the mark entirely.
Many Spotify users were disappointed in the results of their Wrapped last Wednesday, Dec. 4, claiming that it only recorded the first couple months of 2024 instead of the whole year. Not only that, but users also noticed that it was short and sloppily put together.
“Did anyone else think Spotify Wrapped was kind of underwhelming… no fun facts, no Spotify personalities… no top genres…” Twitter user @raspberhrriies said.
2023’s Spotify Wrapped offered a plethora of fun data recordings, from giving you a “mbti-personality trait” that used uniquely odd music genres to providing more than one video from your top artists. However, the 2024 Spotify Wrapped did not have that.
“Spotify wrapped was so boring this year! Where are the random facts? All they told us was our top artist, top song, and [amount of] minutes listened,” Twitter user @KeziaaDesiree said.
This year, we only got 11 slides about our top five songs and artists and data on how many minutes we listened to. Some of us were also called random names like “Pink Pilates Princesses.” We know ChatGPT was probably mad that it did not come up with that first.
The most disappointing aspect of Wrapped 2024 was that almost all of it was AI-generated. From the odd sub-genres created like Alien Shonen J-Rock and Serotonin Talent Show Pop to the sloppy delivery, it all seemed last-minute and ingenious. Wrapped used to feel like a personal love letter to Spotify users; now it just feels like receiving a Hallmark card when you were expecting something handwritten. Half the time, the categories don’t even make sense. How did my top artist not even make it into my recap playlist? Let’s not forget that these problems may be related to the fact that Spotify fired 1,500 workers, a staggering 17 percent of its workforce, simply to integrate better AI technology into their operations. Great job.
AI is taking over faster than we think. Spotify has fallen victim to this technology, and unfortunately, it might only grow from here. We do not want to hear some robot on an AI podcast tell us the same thing that was repeated in our sad slideshow. Spotify, please listen to your users, and stop relying so much on artificial intelligence. Bring back the whimsy in our Wrapped.
