Spotify Users Express Disappointment Over This Year’s Lackluster Wrapped Experience
After weeks of excitement, some Spotify users are feeling let down by the platform’s annual year-in-review feature, Spotify Wrapped — with many labeling it as “boring” or a “flop.”
The primary criticism revolves around Spotify’s choice to focus on an AI podcast for Wrapped instead of the clever and creative data narratives it usually features — such as identifying your music personality, matching you with a town that aligns with your musical preferences, describing your “audio aura,” or gamifying your listening habits to share with friends, among other fun content. Additionally, many are disappointed by the absence of detailed statistics and the omission of familiar features, such as their top music genres and podcasts. Spotify has not clarified its criteria for selecting the features included this year.
On X, numerous users are vocalizing their thoughts using the #SpotifyWrapped2024 hashtag, expressing that this year’s review of their listening habits feels “boring,” a “flop,” “underwhelming,” and a “disappointment.” Despite this, sharing screenshots of their Wrapped continues, but browsing the hashtag currently reveals more grievances than praise.
For instance, a prominent post dubbing Wrapped a flop has garnered over 108,000 likes at the time of writing.
This year, Spotify made a notable investment in partnering with Google to transform users’ Wrapped experiences into an AI-driven podcast, sidelining the other features that usually make Wrapped so captivating. One user remarked on the absence of “quirky interactive bits” like the “silly personality assessments,” while another commented on the new “Your Music Evolution” feature, calling it “quite strange.” (This feature utilized niche genres Spotify employs in its personalized daily playlist, Daylist, to depict how users’ musical tastes evolved during the year.)

Judging by complaints, Spotify users were hoping for the same kind of Top Genre insights they had access to in previous years.
Some users reported that Wrapped did not feature their Top Podcasts for 2024, though this option seemed to have been provided to certain podcast listeners, as indicated by posts on X.
Spotify mentions that users must have at least two top shows for the Top Podcasts to be part of their Wrapped experience. A show qualifies if the user has listened to at least 60 seconds of two unique episodes and tuned in on two separate days throughout the year.
Others noted difficulty in locating their Wrapped 2024 playlist. While it does show up in the Wrapped feed of the Spotify app labeled “Your Top Songs 2024,” the interactive Wrapped experience itself does not link directly to the playlist, which might explain why some users have missed it.
The visual design and graphics used in this year’s Wrapped also received mixed feedback, with some describing them as “mid,” “really simple,” and worse, while others expressed approval of the design.
The AI podcast feature also polarized opinion. Users unfamiliar with Google’s NotebookLM were impressed by the technology, while some expressed discomfort with the feature itself. Spotify likely anticipated that users would promote their AI podcasts on social video platforms like TikTok; however, an exploration of the #SpotifyWrapped hashtag on the app reveals that many users found the feature fell short of expectations this year, attributing part of this to the reliance on AI.
Moreover, several users linked their disappointment with Wrapped to Spotify’s previous layoffs, speculating that this year’s shortcomings resulted from staff reductions coupled with an overdependence on AI. The company had laid off 2,300 employees in 2023, with CEO Daniel Ek stating that this had impacted daily operations more than anticipated.
Even though Wrapped is a year-end feature, it is somewhat integrated into Spotify’s regular operations, as the company informed the press earlier this week that they have already commenced work for next year’s Wrapped. Various teams across the organization contribute to this initiative, including marketing, product, music, podcasts, audiobooks, and more. However, Spotify did not disclose how many individuals are involved in the Wrapped project.
When asked for a comment on their choices for this year’s Wrapped, Spotify merely stated, “Every year we look to bring a new and exciting experience to Wrapped for listeners. It’s part of the secret sauce of Wrapped.”