A combination of personalized music reports and fun sharing with friends, Spotify Wrapped has been an event users looked forward to for years.
Spotify Wrapped is a successful marketing campaign made by the music app, Spotify, that collects and reports users’ listening data at the end of each year. And while it usually is a hit among users, this year was exceedingly underwhelming.
From missing elements included in previous years to inaccurate data collection, fans were severely disappointed. In a survey by Castaic’s very own students, 66% were not satisfied with their Spotify Wrapped. The biggest concern of all, however, were the rumors that the report was made completely by AI.
Normally, Spotify Wrapped is made by an extensive team of programmers, data collectors, and artists to create the wrapped display many love.
Although this year, Spotify didn’t have the team they once had.
In December of 2023, Spotify laid off nearly 1,500 of their workers, 17% of their workforce. This was one of their largest layoffs to date and may have been a large contributor to all the complaints.
It’s no secret that many people choose to rely on AI as a resource as the technology advances, especially when faced with a small, or diminishing workforce, but the speculation of using AI as the sole resource when creating such a beloved and viral program is not something most people can excuse.
Krystel Luna, senior, added commentary as an artist herself.
“It takes jobs from real artists, who would otherwise design the Spotify Wrapped.”
Artificial intelligence is continuing to scare the public at the fear of it replacing jobs, and with Spotify adding to the craze, it is becoming more of a reality.
So what were the actual concerns that made this year’s wrapped so disagreeable?
To start, the report was missing some beloved elements from previous years.
One of the most popular points of discussion being the loss of top genres.
Maryann Galvez, senior, hated this as she was looking forward to viewing this as much as her top artists.
“It was so different from the past years,” Galvez explained, “I definitely think it was AI and people enjoyed it way more in past years when it was made from the actual hard work of people.”
On top of the lackluster and absent elements, the suspicions of AI were only increased with the music evolution section of the wrapped.
Across the internet, people have been making jokes and poking fun at this section as it is just so confusing. With labels such as, “Pink Pilates Princess Strut Phase” or “Mulled Cider Slow Dance Indie Season.”
There were also a great amount of complaints on the inaccuracy.
“I feel like what made it so inaccurate was that most of the songs and artists were only recorded from the summer,” Luna explained.
Many people reported the same opinions, realizing that most of their report was primarily from July/June.
Junior Bridget Wilson said “My data was all wrong. I listened to like one album for 4 months and I only had one top song from it and it wasn’t even one I listened to as much as the others.”
Taking everything into account, this year’s Spotify Wrapped disregarded all of its expectations. With AI speculations and overall lack of flair, this year turned out to be a disappointing and unfufilling report for most of its users.
