Spotify is an audio streaming service for music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Every year, Spotify releases “Spotify Wrapped,” a recap of what users have listened to throughout the year. In 2024, Spotify heavily integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into features like showing the user’s top artists or songs. On December 3rd, Spotify released this year’s Wrapped, which collects your data from January to mid-November. Displaying your top genres, favorite artists, minutes listened, etc., Spotify Wrapped has become a popular tradition on social media, where people share their music taste with their friends and family online.

Even before Spotify started “Wrapped,” AI had been present throughout the app, allowing users to play their favorite songs, suggest songs (Smart Shuffle), and access favorite artists. Spotify generates playlists like “Discover Weekly” and “Daily Mix” by using Natural Language Processing, which allows computers to understand and interpret humans. This technology creates curated playlists that reflect the user’s taste. 

Last year, in 2024, Spotify heavily used AI to introduce the “AI DJ” feature, which plays mixed music with AI-generated commentary about your state. This year, Spotify did not repeat the AI DJ in their Wrapped. However, they added “Top Song Quiz” and “Fan Leaderboard” as new features. The “Fan Leaderboard” is a feature where users can now see how they rank among their friends in terms of engagement with their favorite artists. The feature “Your Listening Age” is perhaps the most intriguing part, as it guesses your music preferences based on the year your songs were released. “Listening Age” is calculated from the release dates of all the songs you’ve played over the past five years, meaning it will not always be your exact age (Newsroom). Meanwhile, the “Top Song Quiz” feature tests users on their most-listened tracks. It displays the user’s top 5 listened-to songs and how many times they have listened to each one. Friends can challenge each other to see who knows their Spotify Wrapped the best, adding more fun. 

How do they statistically use AI to find their data? As per ABC, “users must listen to at least 30 tracks for over 30 seconds each to get top songs. For artists, users need to listen to at least five unique artists for over 30 seconds. And for the top album, users need to have listened to at least 70% of the tracks on one album (abc7chicago).” Without these statistical data, the Wrapped wouldn’t be accurate in the user’s active listening taste. Using AI within Spotify Wrapped provides authentic and personal experiences with the user.

Many people criticized Spotify Wrapped as “AI Slop With Paid Stats” (Headphonesty). Many fans opened their Spotify Wrapped and discovered something close to “AI spam.” Many unknown “artists” appeared in their top spots, favorite songs were missing, and that the numbers looked “bought and paid for.”