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At the end of every year, Spotify releases “Wrapped,” a personalized summary of your music listening habits for the last 10-12 months. Although it’s a neat party trick–and people love to share it–Wrapped seems to get progressively worse each year.
The Problem With Spotify’s Uniform Recommendations
When I first started using Spotify, the recommended music wasawesome. I was given a steady stream of unknown, underground music, which fundamentally changed my approach to music. Some of my now-favorite bands were introduced to me through Spotify’s recommendations.
However, as Spotify and I grew more accustomed to each other, all of my mixes began blending into a giant hodgepodge of the same stuff. For instance, Spotify provides me with “Indie Mix,” “Indie Rock,” “Modern Psychedelia,” “Happy Mix,” and “2010s Mix,” and half of eachplaylistjust ends up being the same few songs.
The very algorithm that made Spotify awesome has now become its executioner. Oh, so you likeElectric Feelby MGMT? Get ready to hear it in every single playlist for the next three years.
Artist-specific playlists and their radios are even worse. Spotify will always recycle the same twenty songs instead of showcasing hidden gems or even songs that the artist is featured on. Combine it with thenot-so-random shuffleand the50- or 100-song limitthat many auto-generated playlists have, and you’re stuck in an endless algorithmic loop of repetitive music listening with no variety in sight.
Spotify’s Algorithm Takes Over Your Wrapped
I mostly listen to whatever Spotify hands me, as I don’t have the time and energy necessary to create custom playlists. My top artists and songs in the previous years generally reflected my actual music preferences. This made Spotify Wrapped a nice summary of what I enjoyed throughout the year, which largely included my favorite artists and songs.
However, this year’s Wrapped was dominated by the algorithm, and it shows. I believe I’m not the only one saying that this year’s Spotify Wrapped was the worst one yet. Granted, it’s a bit of my fault, too.
I have been using Spotify to playTV show theme songs for my alarm clocksince September, so my Wrapped was dominated byThe Wire’s seasonal theme songs, which bled into my regular playlists. I later fixed this issue byexcluding them from my taste profile. Still, the last song, “Minor Setback,” is a completely random track that Spotify decided would become my earworm for the year. The artists are even more random. The top spot is my favorite band, but Spotify’s algorithm picked the other four. I don’t even know who Crumb and NEIL FRANCES are–that’s a big problem.
Spotify’s Stinginess Only Makes Things Worse
Spotify Wrapped’s name suggests that it’s going to wrap up your year by providing a thorough overview of your Spotify use. However, all it really gives you is your top five artists and songs, minutes and number of artists listened to, and a few top genres. If the algorithm hijacked your top five, you’re out of luck. I have no idea how my actual favorite songs and artists fared this year. EvenApple Music Replayis more generous, as it gives users a list of their top 15 songs and artists.
Although the data in Wrapped is technically accurate, it feels superficial from a user’s perspective. I’d much rather know how many times or hours I spent listening to my favorite songs and artists, either organized in a pie chart or as part of my 2024 Wrapped playlist.
This is especially true for genres. I want to know how many hours I spent listening to various rap, rock, and metal subgenres. There’s so much more interesting information that Spotify could provide in Wrapped than what they actually give us. I’m talking about useless stuff like thecreepy Wrapped AI podcast, which probably used way too much processing power to deliver. You can do better, Spotify.
