“Is Your Taste in Music Really Changing? Fans Uncover Shocking Reasons Behind the ‘Worst Spotify Wrapped Ever'”

Ah, it’s that time of year again when music lovers globally gather to unleash their pent-up frustrations about the oh-so-controversial Spotify Wrapped! It’s become a cherished tradition—like fruitcake at Christmas—where anticipation peaks only to be swiftly followed by collective eye rolls. This year, however, has taken the cake (or should I say the fruitcake?), with many declaring it the “worst Spotify Wrapped ever.” Gone are the delightfully bizarre linkages to obscure locations or the entertaining genre deep-dives. What are we left with? A bare-bones presentation that feels more like a dull PowerPoint than a year-end music gala. One day post-launch, and fans are still scratching their heads, wondering why their playlists are MIA. Is this evolution, or are we experiencing a major misstep? Hmmm… maybe Spotify’s algorithm needs a little jam session itself! If you’re curious about all the hubbub, you can LEARN MORE.

Music fans online have come around to engage in their favourite yearly tradition: bashing Spotify Wrapped.

While every year, Wrapped will be hotly anticipated and then roundly criticised, this year’s was different, with several calling it the ‘worst Spotify Wrapped ever’.

Compared to 2023, this year was a much more stripped back affair.

Gone were weirdly specific places associated with your music, gone were genre breakdowns, and a full day on, many have still yet to receive a playlist of their top songs of 2024.

Unfortunately, people weren’t too happy (John Phillips via Getty Images)

Fans were incensed, with one tweeting: “spotify making us wait all that time and wrapped has the most boring visuals and slideshow in years”.

Another said: “That was the most ‘here damn’ Spotify Wrapped yet. They didn’t even give us our top genres???”

A third hilariously put: “Spotify wrapped is SO LAZY this year they didn’t tell me whether that gay little town in Vermont still matches my music taste”.

As a queer person who also got Burlington, Vermont on Spotify wrapped last year, I am incensed.

A fourth said: “spotify wrapped flopped this year so bad like where are the music cities, the playlists, the top genres or the listening auras… all that wait for WHAT.”

One post compared the lengths of Wrapped from last year to this year’s edition, noting how much shorter it is.

Last year’s far more detailed Wrapped was 20 slides long, a far cry from this year’s nine-slide affair.

Other fans pointed to issues with the algorithm, with one posting her wrapped saying: “I learned 2 things from this year’s Spotify Wrapped: 1. I should probably cancel my Spotify premium 2. Their EOY metrics are 100% made-up.”

This refers to the metric for what % listener you are for your favourites, with her account telling she listened to her top song, ‘Good Luck Babe’ by Chappell Roan, four times. It also claimed that she was in the top 1% of listeners of the song globally, which has over a billion listens.

Spotify have come under fire (Michael M Santiago via Getty Images)

Some fans, however think they’ve figured out what’s gone wrong this year.

One tweeted: “apparently Spotify laid off a lot of workers and used AI to create the wrapped this year instead no wonder it sucks…”

Whilst it is unclear is Spotify did use AI to create this year’s Wrapped outside of their AI Podcast, AI DJ, and AI playlists, the fact they have laid off workers in the last year is a fact.

Last December, the music streaming service laid off 1,500 workers, 17% of their staff, over the holiday period.

This led Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to say in a Q1 2024 earnings call: “Although there’s no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipated”.

The LADbible group have contacted Spotify for comment.