Social Media Users Blast Spotify For Leaning Into AI For 2024 ‘Wrapped’: “So underwhelming”

Spotify dropped its highly-anticipated, yearly ‘Wrapped’ on Wednesday (Dec 4) but the listeners have been left disappointed at what turned out to be a ‘bland’ and ‘disappointing’ effort from the streaming giant. This year’s Spotify Wrapped did not provide listeners with their top music genres, or their top albums. Instead, an odd surprise, termed “wrapped AI podcast” was served which used Google’s NotebookLM technology to verbally recap users’ listening habits. The bizarre addition featured artificial intelligence (AI) voices elaborating on the data points mentioned in the Wrapped.

The users have since taken to social media to lash out at Spotify for heavily leaning into AI and creating something that did not feel like Wrapped of the previous years.

“Spotify wrapped is so underwhelming and reeks of AI…there seems to be real lack of effort this year from the boring visuals to the missing genres and quirks,” said one user, while another added: “Hi I’m just here to remind you all that AI is going to ruin the world and spotify wrapped is the perfect dramatic example of that.”

A third added: “So apparently spotify fired a lot of workers and used AI to create this year’s Wrapped, no wonder it suck.”

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Last year, Spotify gave listeners their own custom “Sound Town,” matching their music tastes to real-world locations, which received widespread acclaim. However, this year, users were given a “music Evolution” list that details a selection of bizarrely titled musical micro-genres. From “Coastal Grandmother Fingerstyle Yacht Rock” to “Boujee Football Rap” to “Pink Pilates Princess Roller Skating Pop” – the listeners were left confused as to what the descriptions meant.

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While it is not clear if AI was involved in the use of Wrapped, Spotify in a statement said this year’s year-ender was intended to make it “more about the users” with the “AI experiences”.

“Through the combination of Spotify’s powerful personalization technology and generative AI, we’ve created hyper-personalized Wrapped experiences that connect millions of listeners worldwide with the music and audio they love,” Spotify said.

Also Read | ‘Dead’, ‘Bye Bye Bye’: Israel’s Joke ‘Spotify Wrapped’ List Sparks Row

What is Spotify Wrapped?

Spotify Wrapped is a viral marketing campaign by the Swedish company, released annually since 2016 at the end of November or the start of December. It allows users to view a compilation of their listening activity that typically includes five top songs, singers they listened to the most and musical genres that resonated with them.

A colourful pictorial representation of the data across various slides is presented which the users can later post on social media.