Spotify users feel disappointed by a lackluster Wrapped this year.

After weeks of anticipation, several Spotify users have expressed disappointment with the platform's personalized annual summary feature, known as Spotify Wrapped. Some have labeled it "boring" or a "failure." The most common criticisms indicate that Spotify chose to include an artificial intelligence podcast instead of the creative and entertaining data stories it used to offer, such as identifying users' musical personalities, pairing them with locations that share their musical tastes, describing their "audio aura," or turning their listening history into a game to share with friends.

Additionally, there is discontent over the lack of more detailed statistics and the omission of information that users expected, such as the most listened-to music genres and podcasts. Although Spotify has not provided clarifications on how the features to include were decided, many users have shared their feedback under the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped2024, describing their annual review as "boring," a "failure," or a "disappointment." While some continue to share screenshots of their Wrapped, a look through the hashtag reveals more complaints than praise.

This year, Spotify bet on a collaboration with Google, focusing on creating an AI-powered Wrapped experience instead of the detailed features that traditionally made this function appealing. Some users mentioned the lack of "interactive" elements like the "fun personality quizzes." Others found the new feature "Your musical evolution" odd, as it reused niche genres that Spotify employs for its personalized daily list, Daylist, to show how users' musical tastes changed over the year.

Complaints also pointed out that information about the main genres users had in previous years was not available, and some noticed that Wrapped 2024 did not include their top podcasts, although this service seemed to have been offered only to certain listeners. To include the podcast section, Spotify states that users must have listened to at least two programs, each with a minimum duration of 60 seconds on two different days of the year. There were also reports of users unable to find their Wrapped 2024 playlist, which appears as "Your Top Songs 2024" in the app but does not link directly to the interactive experience.

Moreover, the graphic and artistic design of Wrapped received mixed opinions, with some describing it as "average" or "very simple," while others found it appealing. The reception of the AI podcast was also varied. Those who were unfamiliar with Google's NotebookLM were impressed, while others expressed concerns regarding this feature. Despite Spotify hoping that users would share their AI podcasts on social video apps like TikTok, the general perception in the #SpotifyWrapped hashtag has been one of disappointment.

On the other hand, a significant number of users connected their discontent with Wrapped to the layoffs Spotify experienced earlier this year, speculating that the decline in quality was due to a lack of personnel and an excessive reliance on artificial intelligence. In 2023, the company laid off 2,300 employees, which, according to its CEO Daniel Ek, had a greater-than-expected impact on daily operations.

Despite being an end-of-year feature, Wrapped is part of Spotify's daily operations, as the company has begun working on next year's edition, collaborating with teams from marketing, products, music, podcasts, audiobooks, among others. However, it has not been specified how many people are specifically involved in Wrapped. When asked how this year's features were selected, Spotify commented, “Every year we aim to offer a new and exciting experience for Wrapped. It’s part of Wrapped’s secret recipe.”