Spotify Wrapped 2024: Why AI Cannot Do It All

Addi Lloyd - Online Editor

Photos by Various Torch Staff Members

The end of the year means Christmas shopping, bonuses, family gatherings, and planning for the upcoming year. But the end of the year also means the release of Spotify Wrapped. Listening to music is a huge part of most young adult's life. From putting on a Lofi playlist for studying to playing a game-day hype playlist, many students utilize Spotify and other music platforms daily. Every November or December, Spotify typically releases individual overviews of what each user listened to throughout the year. Many users reported that their number one artist for the 2024 year was not very expected, and it seemed as if Spotify just stopped collecting data halfway through the year. For me, Taylor Swift was shown as my number one. I would have believed it if you told me that earlier this year. But in the past four or five months I've expanded my listening activity and expected someone like Billie Eilish, Zach Bryan, or Noah Kahan to be my number one. Not Taylor Swift. Many other students I talked to experienced the same issue, nobody felt like they had actually listened to their number one artist. Users were not just upset by what seemed to be the inaccuracy of their Spotify Wrapped, but also just how underwhelming it was. Spotify teased Wrapped for multiple weeks before the release, so users expected something huge and exciting. However, they got something that lacked originality and innovation. In 2023, Spotify told users their listening personality and showed users which city or town streamed their top album, which made users feel like they were not alone with their music taste. This year, the only extra feature (excluding the Spotify Notebook AI advertisement) was what “mood” each month had. This concept sounds neat and interesting but did not meet expectations. The titles were clearly AI (Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop,” and “Boujee Strut Rap,”). All of them use adjectives that don’t usually go together to describe a mood that not only doesn’t match the artists but also seems very offputting. Another thing Spotify lacked in was the overall design of their Spotify Wrapped. This year's Wrapped design was very bland. With few color differences and overused graphics, it led users to get bored. This design also seemed to be created using AI.  2023’s design was colorful, interactive, and exciting to go through. But this year, they just felt rushed. As if they had forgotten to make it until the week before. Overall, Wrapped definitely could have been better, and this year's Wrapped proves that while AI might be smart, it isn’t as creative as the human mind. But with this all being said, Spotify Wrapped is still an opportunity to see how your music taste evolved throughout the year and gives users something to look forward to - good graphics or not.