Commentary: What Is The Spotify Wrapped Controversy About?

Spotify Wrapped had humble beginnings. In 2015, the company released a less-developed version of the campaign called “Music in a Year,” which gained some traction but didn’t quite go viral. It was two years later that Spotify decided to upgrade its marketing quest and finally got what it wanted – a viral moment that provided an abundance of free advertising.

The campaign’s ability to achieve consistent virality has been key to its years-long success, and it’s something worth praising Spotify for from a marketing perspective. When you think about it, Spotify Wrapped has become a social media sensation that has gone viral annually for seven consecutive years. It’s difficult to think of any other trend that would gain the same amount of popularity – if not more – year after year.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be that way if people were not interested in engaging with and sharing a glamorous show that champions how good ‘music listeners’ they are and showcases their favorite artists, songs, albums, and more. It seems that Spotify Wrapped has become not only a staple of modern music consumption but also a defining feature of mainstream culture.

Every year, music blogs and magazines release thousands of articles to report on Spotify Wrapped and cheer on the most successful artists of the year (we’re guilty of this, too).

Another hundreds of articles are then written on how artists can use Spotify Wrapped to promote themselves and thank their fans for their love and support. While any opportunity to endorse their music is wonderful for artists, particularly independent ones, it’s crucial to look at the true purpose of Spotify Wrapped – which is not to promote artists.

At its core, Spotify Wrapped is purely a very effective marketing campaign intended to promote the streaming platform. Year after year, Spotify collects personalized data about listening trends and habits on the platform and crafts a fancy presentation with catchy slogans that users then share on their social media.

It sparks herd-like behavior, with around 227 million people (as of 2022) engaging with the campaign, and contributes to an overall “FOMO effect,” which has encouraged listeners to use Spotify over any other music streaming service. Only last year, Spotify Wrapped arrived with the slogan “Wrapped, Or It Didn’t Happen” – and frankly, who would want to miss out on the opportunity to learn all the fun facts about their music consumption?

So, Spotify runs its Wrapped campaign to promote itself. What’s the issue with that? The problem doesn’t lie in self-promotion but in the lack of accountability towards artists. As the dominant player in the music industry – with an unbelievable 281 million subscribers and roughly 713 million monthly active users – Spotify wields immense influence.

Given that streaming accounts for roughly 32% of all music consumption, Spotify is uniquely positioned not only to endorse artists but also to foster an environment where they can thrive. This is especially relevant considering Spotify’s stated mission: “to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art.”

Yet, Spotify Wrapped is designed primarily for listeners and fans, painting a glossy, idealized picture of the music industry as if it operates solely on a shared love for music. By doing so, Spotify neglects pressing real-life issues such as inadequate pay, financial instability, and limited support for artists – challenges to which Spotify itself contributes.

Unfair artist compensation, in particular, has long been a contentious topic, with prominent artists like Thom Yorke, David Byrne, and Taylor Swift voicing criticism against the platform for years. Ultimately, Wrapped may celebrate fans’ listening habits, but it overlooks the real-world struggles faced by the creators on whom the platform has been built.

Some might argue that Wrapped does offer artists a form of promotion by spotlighting the most-streamed artists, songs, and albums. However, the issue lies in what determines these ‘most-streamed’ rankings – the Spotify algorithm.

In theory, Spotify can be a fantastic platform for discovering music – as long as you like digging and exploring new tracks on your own. In practice, though, many users rely on Spotify’s personalized recommendations and curated playlists to find new music.

These recommendations are heavily influenced by the platform’s algorithm, which, as described in a simple way, tailors suggestions based on a listener’s current listening habits. Author and entrepreneur Eli Paries has described personalized algorithms as systems that create “a unique universe of information for each of us … which fundamentally alters the way we encounter ideas and information.”

When applied to music, Spotify often recommends music similar to what people already enjoy, while ruling out any unproven or unsure music styles and genres. This can, ultimately, trap listeners in their own musical bubble, which limits their exposure to other styles or genres they might potentially like unless they consciously break free.

This raises the question of how much control users really have over their own music discovery on Spotify. Critics have long accused the platform of exerting significant influence over music consumption, implementing policies, and using its algorithm to shape users’ listening habits to favor major artists and heavy streams.

In this context, Spotify Wrapped can be seen as an extension of this strategy, focusing solely on streaming numbers and thus exclusively celebrating musicians that already dominate the charts. This means that the campaign continuously reinforces industry norms and prioritizes major label successes – something that the music business has already done enough of – over smaller and independent artists who want to be heard.

Spotify Wrapped has faced criticism not only from an artist’s perspective but also from listeners. Many media outlets have pointed out the extensive volume of personal data Spotify collects and leverages for free advertising.

Naturally, no one is obliged to share their Wrapped with others, but given that the campaign thrives on social media and users are actively encouraged to broadcast their stats, it is not really intended for private enjoyment.

As Alexis Petridis wrote in a 2023 article for The Guardian, the underlying message of Spotify Wrapped is that "something, somewhere is effectively spying on you, carefully taking note of everything you listen to and when." He further noted that it serves as a reminder that "other companies are doing the same" without users even realizing.

It seems, however, that many users are not concerned about "Spotify’s spying," often reasoning that "it’s just songs" and "not a big deal." Yet, a 2019 study conducted by five researchers revealed that Spotify collects far more than the listening habits and streaming count.

In fact, the study explained that users are, in a way, obliged to have their listening habits turned to "taste profiles” that are "measured using a set of parameters.” While these parameters have never been officially disclosed, it has been discovered that Spotify gathers data such as users’ gender, IP address (and, by extension, location), presumed nationality, and social class.

This further suggests that the platform could deduct other relevant demographics, such as ethnicity, age, or even sexuality. Like other companies, Spotify likely monetizes this data by selling it to other businesses reliant on personal and demographic insights – despite denying such allegations.

Many privacy experts have urged Spotify to strengthen its privacy protection, raising the question of whether the company fully complies with or pushes the limits of various global data privacy laws. Ethical concerns aside, many users appear indifferent to these warnings, despite experts labeling Spotify’s behavior insidious.

In a 2021 Vox article, Kelly Pau wrote that users are often not only aware of companies like Spotify collecting their private data but also eager to see what it reveals about them and enjoy sharing it with others. Ultimately, as Pau suggests, this behavior is often justified through the concept of personal branding, as people use data analysis from these companies to craft their unique online persona.

This perspective has also been shared by Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable, the outlet that covers the business of podcasting, who suggests that “people like being able to show who they are through what they experience.”

If Spotify Wrapped thrives on users wanting to share their listening habits and experiences, you can only imagine the fallout when several beloved data categories people had been anticipating simply vanished. Well, that’s exactly what happened with Spotify Wrapped 2024 – and the public response was swift and, one might say, unforgiving.

This is not to say that Wrapped 2024 was a total failure – in terms of user engagement and social sharing, it was actually seen as a success, setting new records within the first 12 hours of its release. But despite the headline numbers, many listeners (if not all) reportedly felt disappointed with Spotify over the recap’s visuals and, more notably, the absence of popular metrics from previous years, including the essential “top genres” and “top albums,” as well as the fun “Sound Town” category, which would match listeners with a city sharing their musical tastes. Some also mentioned that the recap leaned a little too heavily on generative AI, including “Your Spotify Wrapped AI Podcast,” a feature developed in collaboration with Google’s NotebookLM.

And so, instead of posting their usual end-of-year brag reel, they took their frustration to social media, describing the experience as underwhelming, lacking personality (describing the AI audio summary as “robotic” or “soulless mess”), and even inaccurate at times.

“No interesting stats, no genres, nothing. It felt super anti-climactic tbh. Even the theme felt meh,” wrote one Reddit user. “‘Vampire Pilates Princess Rock April,’ I beg your finest pardon??? WHAT,” said another, referring to “Your Music Evolution,” a feature introduced that year, which highlights people’s defining musical phases and runs high on generative AI. “Last year's Wrapped showed where people live with the most similar musical taste to you. I really wanted to have that stat again bc last year I just got where I lived,” pointed out yet another Reddit user.

“Mine [Wrapped] told me I had listened to ‘five hundred and four hundred and ninety eighty-one minutes,’ this year, which is obviously nonsense… we definitely used Spotify for more than 10 hours over the course of an entire year,” said Inc.’s tech columnist Jason Aten, addressing how inaccurate the recap could get.

In his Inc. article, Aten went on to say that he spent a lot of time trying to find someone – really anyone – who liked Spotify Wrapped 2024, but he was unsuccessful. And it seems he wasn’t alone. There was a general bitterness surrounding Spotify’s glossy presentation that year, with many questioning why the platform would overhaul something so popular and successful. Is it just for the sake of change? Or is there something else behind it? Maybe the fact that Spotify laid off over 2,000 employees across three rounds last year influenced their daily operations “more than we anticipated.” That might also explain the heavy reliance on AI – unless it was simply because “that’s what everybody does these days.”

Whatever the reason, the situation escalated to the point that one user (possibly more, but not confirmed) decided to cancel their Spotify Premium subscription and switch to Apple Music to follow its own monthly version of Wrapped called Replay. “Spotify wrapped so bad and full of AI garbage i cancelled my spotify and got apple music,” they wrote on X.

From a brand perspective, this is, of course, not good news for Spotify, even though they claim their approach to the data stories “did not change” for the 2024 version.

So is Spotify under pressure? And could this mean the hype around Wrapped is starting to fizzle out? Hard to say; we wouldn’t be so sure. But it’s safe to say that all eyes will be watching what the platform brings to the table this year.