Most Spotify users are familiar with the streaming platform’s popular Wrapped feature, which analyzes the trends in your musical taste throughout the previous 12 months.
The annual release of Spotify Wrapped has become a highly anticipated event for many Spotify users since it was introduced at the end of 2015. In addition to showing you information about your favorite artists, songs, albums, and podcasts, Spotify makes at least one new addition to Wrapped every year. In 2022, that was a “listening personality type,” while last year it was a “sound town” that linked your listening history with a specific geographic location. This level of personalization has made Spotify Wrapped increasingly popular, with users eager to share their year-end rundowns.
This year, Spotify Wrapped debuted a new way for people to engage with the experience: the Wrapped AI podcast. As a result of a collaboration with NotebookLM from Google AI, every Spotify listener will receive an AI-generated podcast. For about four minutes, two AI hosts will “dive into your year in music," discussing your favorite artists, albums, and genres and giving interesting tidbits of data, such as how many times you listened to your most-played song of 2024 and on which date you racked up the most minutes on Spotify.
Soon after it was released earlier this week, it became clear that the Wrapped AI podcast had divided users. Some enjoyed the novelty of being the subject of a professional podcast, while others found the use of AI clunky and unnecessary to the Wrapped experience. Others objected to what was undoubtedly an expensive undertaking when artists have long struggled to receive fair compensation for their work being shared on the platform.
What are you listening to?
- Spotify users who share their account with family members are often underwhelmed by their Wrapped results, especially parents of young children, who are regularly informed that songs from Sesame Street and Frozen are pivotal to their musical journey.
- Even before their collaboration with Google on this year’s Wrapped, Spotify had begun to implement AI features. AI DJ and AI Playlist are meant to provide a curated listening experience based on a user’s history.
- In addition to the personalized features, Wrapped coincides with Spotify’s annual announcement of the platform’s most popular artist, album, song, and podcast. For 2024, that was Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (by Taylor Swift), Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” and The Joe Rogan Experience, respectively.
