On December 4th, Spotify Wrapped dropped for more than 650 million users worldwide. Spotify had teased the arrival of their Wrapped feature for a couple of weeks, and many users were getting impatient waiting. In previous years, Spotify has dropped just after Thanksgiving, but this year dropped later because of a late Thanksgiving. Users were anticipating and excited for the end-of-the-year wrap, but many felt underwhelmed when it finally dropped.

Spotify Wrapped is essentially a year review of a user’s listening habits. It has various features explaining a user’s activity. Some of these features include their top 5 songs, top 5 artists, and total minutes listened.  A new feature this year was Music Evolution, which includes phases that a user went through in the year. Some phases include Wild West Slow Dance Country, Dance Party Beats House, Pink Pilates Princess Western Pop, and many more. Many were disappointed with this feature and even called it “nonsensical.”

The feature, Sound Town, which gave users a city that their listening correlated with, was used last year and had a positive reaction from users. Many were looking forward to it this year but instead got Music Evolution. Senior Chloe Terry-Lloyd explained that she was “very excited for Spotify Wrapped, but disappointed at the lack of creativity.” She said, “I liked the Sound Town feature from last year because I got Berkeley as my town, and was looking forward to seeing if I got a different one this year.”

Another new feature this year is the AI podcast. This is a 3-minute podcast that dives into your Spotify Wrap and is hosted by two AI hosts with Google’s Network LM. This podcast is seen as very unnecessary among users because it merely explains their Wrapped results and tells them the information they already saw. Although it is interesting to listen to because the hosts often imply things about your life. For example, if you listened to sad love songs over some time, the hosts would say you probably went through a breakup. Many saw this as very intimate, inaccurate, and creepy.

When it comes to the results of Spotify Wrapped this year, it is no surprise that Taylor Swift was the main headliner. With her Eras tour coming to an end in December, users worldwide were streaming her music. She was the Number 1 most-streamed artist globally for the second year in a row and had the most-streamed album of the year.

Some other artists commonly found on users’ Wrapped were Sabrina Carpenter, Zach Bryan, Billie Eilish, Morgan Wallen, and Drake. Spotify users typically do not care about the worldwide results and are more intrigued by their most-streamed songs and artists. Senior Maddie Moeller’s top artist was Drake, and she said, “This seems pretty accurate because I listen to his music a lot.” Users felt let down this year because they were unable to see their album of the year and favorite genres, which were features Spotify provided in the past. Spotify’s biggest competitors Apple Music and YouTube Music have their versions of a Spotify Wrapped, and have key features that Spotify users love that weren’t included this year.

The biggest reason for the unusual negative backlash this year was because of the obvious AI components, which might’ve been because Spotify laid off 17% of its workforce. Besides the AI podcast, users found it pretty clear that AI had been used for the visuals and the production of the Wrapped slideshow. This disappointed many people because they found it less authentic and intriguing.

Don Press’s very own Editor-in-Chief Lucy Miller recently wrote an article about how AI might affect the workforce, while fellow staffer Maddie Stevens explained how AI use also made for a disappointing Coca-Cola Christmas ad that received similar backlash for its lack of creativity. Clearly, the widespread use of AI is beginning to infect many aspects of the arts and entertainment world with Spotify as its latest victim.

These negative reactions will hopefully reach Spotify and encourage them to step up their game for next year. In the meantime, users will continue to stream their favorite music and try to beat their stats from the past year.