So Spotify Wrapped has come and gone, and we've been given a picture of our musical listening habits in 2024 — well, those of us with Spotify have, anyway. For better or worse, we now know whether Taylor Swift or George Gershwin has topped our most listened-to artists. We've been told how long we've listened for, we've been shown our favorite tracks, and a playlist has been written in our honor by the great minds at Spotify.
Except in some cases, not all of those things have been done accurately. Many users are complaining of hallucinated artists' stats, songs they've never heard appearing in most listened lists, and more. Some users aren't happy with the way that Spotify Wrapped looked this year, complaining that it was boring, and not as creative as previous years. Some miss some of the more personal elements, where they could find out which town they musically matched with.
Like a bubbling cauldron filled with a toxic witches brew, Spotify Wrapped 2024 hasn't gone down with users as Spotify might have perhaps hoped. But why?
Wrong Wrapped
One of the most common complaints seems to be that Spotify Wrapped has misreported on the stats in claims to represent. Now, while this has happened in previous years, this year it seems to be a whole lot more prevalent — as you can see in this Spotify support thread. It's filled with users complaining about top artists they've never listened to, songs appearing in at the top of their lists that they didn't even know existed, or a mixture of the two.
Just anecdotally talking with people outside the internet-o-sphere and you'll quickly find people with iffy Spotify Wrapped statistics. I have friends who listen exclusively to bizarre, underground punk acts, and their Wrappeds were topped by the likes of The Weeknd and Taylor Swift. Even on the Tom's Guide team, we've seen strangeness — our own Millie Fender discovered Swift among her top artists, yet her songs didn't appear in her top 100.
I asked her about the issue — "I've got nothing against Taylor Swift, but I wouldn't describe myself as a Swiftie. It was only a few months ago that I found out that Red TV isn't a dedicated Taylor Swift TV channel, but an acronym for Taylor's Version. So when Taylor Swift swiped the fifth spot of my Spotify Wrapped top artists lists, I was a bit surprised, and I was even more surprised when I looked at my top songs of 2024 and found not a single Taylor song had made the lineup. I know she's got a monstrous back catalog, but the math really is not mathing, especially when Raye, my 6th most listened-to artist, is all over that playlist."
One X user even found that the top 100 tracks are in the wrong order — and that you needed to tap the three dots at the top of the screen to see the real order. Even stranger, they then reported that Spotify turned the feature off.
Again, this isn't the first time strange stats have been found amongst Wrapped playlists. Just a quick Google search is enough to confirm that, but it's the prevalence of the issues here that is enough to register some kind of response. Just have a look at the trending page on X around Wrapped 2024, where complaints abound. But it's not just the hallucinated stats that users are unhappy about this time around either.
Where's the flavor?
Spotify Wrapped in previous years was known for a unique visual style, one that really stood out in social media feeds. It was imaginative, and artistic, and reflected the creativity of the artists that people were listening to. It was colorful, bright, and engaging — almost none of which comes across in Spotify Wrapped 2024.
Users don't like the block shapes and boring colors. A quick look at complaints on X shows you that people were expecting something more personal, more fun. Instead, they got something that looked almost identical to that which their friends recieved. Part of the fun wasn't just about what artists and songs would be present, but what colors and shapes would zoom across your screen.
That seems to be all but gone this year, replaced instead with rushing squares and circles. Each page almost completely identikit, in color, shape, and animation. None of it felt like there was a person involved — something we'll get to later.
There was loads missing
Spotify Wrapped wasn't just about your listening stats, far from it. It was filled with fun stats, genre rankings, and even paired you with a city last year. It dripped with personality, which made it more fun to share with your friends and family.
All of that was gone this year. There were no genre roundups, no fun extras that found your musical home around the world, and little that showed you that people had sat down and decided what users might want to see. So what did we get instead?
The AI question
This year, Spotify has been very busy getting AI into every little nook and cranny of your Spotify experience. AI playlist builders and the AI DJ that reads out the next track in your 'up next' queue are the two main implementations that everyone knows about — although there were some new ones this year for Wrapped.
One of them is the most interesting; the AI podcast. This has no music on it and instead uses your Spotify listening history to create a kind of bizarre podcast where two hosts talk you through your musical habits. Now, personally, I don't really get it. I use my streaming services to listen to music and little else — I don't need two of the most boring hosts around talking about my taste in late '90s Black Metal.
But it does go to show that Spotify is all in on AI. There was an AI-generated playlist for Wrapped to further hammer home the point, which took you through your year with the help of the aforementioned AI DJ. That's a more worthy addition to the musical wrap-up, but users aren't completely convinced.
Just read people's reactions online, especially in the trending topic on X or even the announcement thread on Reddit. Many are blaming Spotify's pivot to AI this year for the lack of personality, and some even hold it responsible for their weird Spotify statistics. I have reached out to Spotify for comment, but I am yet to hear a response.
What can we do?
First off, there are other streaming platforms with year-end roundups. Deezer, for example, has unleashed My Deezer Year, and like everything the French streamer does, it's filled with creativity and personality. That's a streaming service with better sound quality too. Apple Music has its Replay feature, which similarly takes you through your year. There are options.
If you're duty-bound to Spotify, then there is a way to really check your most-listened-to artists, songs, and genres — Track your listening with Last.FM, for example, which gives you breakdowns over the course of the year. Whatever happens, I (and many others) are hoping that Spotify Wrapped is a whole lot better next year.
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