Spotify’s personalized year-end roundups could be out this week if the streaming service sticks to its annual release strategy, although it’s already facing scrutiny from fans disappointed with last year’s edition.
Data reveals
Spotify began teasing its annual Wrapped campaign over the weekend in a TikTok post. The post included different versions of the Spotify logo inspired by popular artists this year, which fans deciphered as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Katseye, and PinkPantheress.
Spotify has not yet revealed what day users can access its Wrapped, which usually includes statistics such as the most played artists and songs of the year.
The Wrapped campaign became a key marketing strategy for Spotify and a fan-favorite feature. However, users are already taking to social media in hopes that this year’s edition will be an improvement over last year, which some criticized for lacking interesting information and relying on AI-generated content.
“Will this AI crap be as horrible as last year?” asks one of the most popular comments on Spotify’s recent TikTok.
Forbes has reached out to Spotify for comment.
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When will Spotify Wrapped 2025 be released?
Spotify released its Wrapped packages on Wednesdays of the last week of November or the first week of December in recent years. If tradition holds, Wednesday, December 3 could be the most likely release date.
Why did users criticize Spotify Wrapped last year?
When Spotify Wrapped launched in December 2024, many social media posts went viral, calling it Spotify’s “worst” Wrapped campaign ever. Many users questioned the apparent lack of statistics, since Spotify did not offer lists of each user’s favorite genres or albums.
While Spotify hasn’t included the most popular albums in recent years, it has shown users their favorite genres as recently as the 2023 Wrapped campaign. Fans compared it unfavorably to other streaming services, such as Apple Music and YouTube Music, which show users their favorite albums in their year-end roundups.
Spotify also typically includes new features in its Wrapped packages each year, but subscribers appeared to be disappointed with what’s new in 2024. Spotify used AI to generate personalized podcasts for users last year, chronicling highlights of their listening habits, and another new feature described the user’s “musical evolution” over specific months.
The music evolution feature was especially criticized as it described the user’s musical tastes with absurd language, such as “Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop” and “Surf Crush Beach Reggae.” Some users commented that Wrapped’s features paled in comparison to previous years, some of which went viral, including the 2023 “sound city” feature, which assigned users a city according to their musical tastes.
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What are users saying this year about Spotify Wrapped?
Last year’s Wrapped pack appears to have dampened some users’ enthusiasm for this year’s edition. “No one has made any noise about Spotify Wrapped this year,” reads a post on X, which was viewed nearly 10 million times and received 124,000 likes.
Another user responded to that post, stating that Spotify Wrapped’s “fall” can be attributed “entirely to their use of AI last year to do stupid things,” receiving 221,000 likes.
Many users also left critical comments on Spotify’s TikTok post teasing this year’s Wrapped. “I’m still not over the horrible consequences of Spotify Wrapped 2024,” one user commented. “NO pink princess Pilate runway pop, just because I listened to Ariana Grande a couple of times please,” said another, garnering 24,000 likes.
Key context
Spotify launched the first Wrapped in 2016, which at the time offered users a playlist of their most listened to songs of the year. The campaign evolved over the years, and in 2019, Spotify began including shareable graphics formatted for Instagram Stories.
The company adopted Wrapped as a marketing tool. “We started to realize that it was an incredible way for our passionate users to shout the brand from the rooftops,” former Spotify vice president and creative director Alex Bodman told Variety in 2023.
Many brands tried to imitate Spotify with their own year-end summaries. Streaming services Tidal and YouTube Music debuted their own year-round reviews in 2020 and 2021, respectively, while other apps like Duolingo and Reddit also offered users personalized year-end summaries and shareable charts.
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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