By Kaitlin O’Meara, Assistant Copy Editor
If you or anyone you know is an avid user of Spotify, then Wednesday, Dec. 6, was a very important day. This was the day that 2024’s Spotify Wrapped was released – a personalized recap of each user’s musical taste and habits throughout the year. The Wrapped came out later this year than it has in the past, leading to lots of anticipation among many who wait all year to find out who their top artists and most streamed songs are. So what’s the big deal?
According to Wikipedia, Spotify Wrapped began in 2016 as a way to promote Spotify to a wider audience and inspire people to make Spotify their main music streaming service. After one views their year in review, they are provided with a shareable graphic that they can put on social media to share what their most streamed songs and artists. In the past, the information usually also included one’s top genres, which was noticeably absent this year. The promotional aspect of Spotify Wrapped is by design – one executive noted that the way it is done is to provide a sense of FOMO to non-users and encourage them to begin using the app as well – and it works, which is exactly why I am a Spotify girl.
Data is collected from the first of January through the fifteenth of November, so it doesn’t technically provide a full picture of one’s year-long listening habits. Tech website Hightouch describes the data that Spotify collects as “behavioral data,” and explains that this includes every aspect of how one listens to music: from the device you listen on to the music you choose to the time of day you’re listening. Once they have collected this data, it is very easy for them to compile it all and give it back to you through the Wrapped. Many people are concerned with how this is normalizing us being so highly monitored and having our data so easily handed back to us, but the social phenomenon of Spotify Wrapped often drowns out these concerns.
Since Spotify Wrapped has become such a cultural phenomenon, I thought it would be a good idea to get the opinions of some fellow Griffs about their feelings towards the annual phenomenon. In the weeks leading up to the Wrapped coming out, I had conversations with multiple people about when it was coming out, and in my circles, there seemed to be a general sense of anticipation regarding the impending release. One common theme among people I talked with was a sense of disappointment with the way this year’s Spotify Wrapped was done.
Maddie Kotch, a senior here at Canisius, expressed displeasure with the AI presence and involvement clearly seen in this year’s Wrapped, both in the titles of things as well as the new AI podcast, which read your Spotify Wrapped to you. “What the heck was the random month vibe?” she said regarding the feature where users were given three months and told their top genre of the month, which seemed to be a series of words randomly strung together. Kotch recounted titles such as, “vlog alt-z indie pop” or “coastal grandmother beach oldies.”
Spotify seemed to try and pass these off as users’ top genres of the year, which used to be a much bigger part of the Spotify Wrapped experience, something that Kotch and many others were not pleased with. Senior Lio Salazar also expressed feeling as if “this year’s Spotify Wrapped fell a little short [compared to last year].” It seems to be one of those things that can’t be helped because it's not going to be quite as good as we remember it, especially when one waits all year to see this.
Aside from its implications for Spotify’s marketing and everyone’s need to know their top songs and artists, the Wrapped has also become a marketing tool for other organizations. Canisius even posted their own version of a Spotify Wrapped on their Instagram, including hits such as “Good Luck, Griffs” and “Defying Griff-ity.” Since people know that it is something that the public loves, they also try to capitalize on its success to promote their own brand. Spotify Wrapped has become quite the socio-cultural phenomenon, as it is such a highly anticipated day that is then plastered all over social media.
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