After multiple delays and weeks of waiting, Spotify Wrapped was finally released on December 4. Spotify Wrapped is one of the most anticipated end-of-the-year traditions for Spotify users around the world, and every year, users are expecting something different, new, and creative. But this year, users around the world were left feeling underwhelmed and disappointed with what they were given. Instead of the introspective analysis and creative designs that users are gifted with every year, many claim to have seen a rushed, uninteresting, and extremely disappointing “wrap.”
Spotify Wrapped is supposed to be a colorful and entertaining “diagnosis” for listeners around the world, with multiple memes and jokes arising out of it every time. Every year when the breakdown is released, users take advantage of the chance to show off their diverse music taste–whether it’s through sarcastic jokes or true pride of what their roundup was.
While this year’s Wrapped did attempt to do so, the result that came out was far below expectations and made users feel like they were waiting extra long for absolutely nothing.
Spotify integrated a new feature called “Music Evolution,” where users got to see their ‘era’ for three different months of the year. These ‘eras’ were given unique titles with nonsensical, yet comedic phrases such as “Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop,” “Heatwave Beach Reggaeton,” or even “Wild West Banjo Outlaw Country.” These new titles may have been one of the only new features that were actually as interesting as Wrapped was anticipated to be, but this does not make for the complete disappointment that users faced.
Another addition was the new Wrapped Artificial Intelligence (AI) Podcast. The five minute podcast had two AI bots having a conversation about a user’s music taste and their statistics for that year. Although it does seem intriguing and an upgrade from Spotify’s AI DJ, users mocked the content that was in it.
Users online posted their podcasts with their bots saying various controversial phrases, having humorous mispronunciation, or even being bullied for their own music taste. Although it’s AI, the tone and word choice that the robots used left users amused. But as users listened to their own, unique podcasts, they realized it was not even unique at all. In fact, their ‘current’ music taste was just an exact replica of the year before.
Fingers were pointed at Spotify, criticizing them for their ‘laziness’ and their total inaccuracy. Users have compared both ‘Wrapped’ from last year and this year, and two outcomes came out. Either their music taste was the exact same, or their feed was full of obscure music not part of their own music taste.
It is an obvious fact that this year’s Wrapped was not to anyone’s expectations, leaving it to be a total flop. Users have even claimed that Spotify’s competitor, Apple Music (which is infamous to be less interesting than Spotify), had a better roundup that was both accurate and entertaining to its users. Spotify had one job, the users gave them time, and they still came out with a disappointing result. Wrapped is supposed to be an annual tradition for users to get together and eagerly talk about their music tastes and the new features they have added; but this year, it is mostly negativity that will be coming out of users’ mouths.
