Spotify Wrapped is a summarized review of a user’s music taste, with top songs and artists included. Spotify’s Wrapped theme has changed over the years since its introduction in 2016. Spotifty has since grown tremendously, with over 626 million listeners. Recently, controversy emerged about Spotify, surrounding its use of AI.

“Compared to last year’s [Wrapped], it felt so soulless,” senior Bien Dao said. “[It’s like] they threw everything into AI and spit out a soulless mess.”

Last December, Spotify laid off 17% of its workers to “reduce costs” according to CEO Daniel Ek. Yet there have been more layoffs at Spotify since, latest being June of this year. Controversies have spread across social media, with users saying this year is not accurate or rushed.

“I heard it’s made by AI, and that’s why it hasn’t been accurate,” junior Lizy Compton said. “If AI is why it was inaccurate, then I’m disappointed.”

Additionally, users agreed the features, designs and animations included were substantially less creative compared to last year’s. There was no top genre category included and though it gave a description of how the user’s music changed over the year, it only included a few months rather than all 12. Other features not there this year included: top albums, top podcasts, music personalities called listening characters and sound towns matched based on listening to and top five genres.

“[Next year I wish to see] the personality traits based on your Wrapped,” junior Leslie Oliveres said. “It’s not just how Spotify described your music, but also your personality and it makes me get to know myself better through music.”

Spotify begins tracking listening habits from Jan. 1 through the fall of the same year. Users find excitement in their Wrapped and post their results on social media. Spotify Wrapped historically releases anywhere from late November to early December. 

“I was expecting a fun experience like this year,” Dao said. “But this year it wasn’t an experience, rather a commodity they were forced to put out.”