[…] Many users are complaining of hallucinated artists’ stats, songs they’ve never heard appearing in most listened lists, and more. Some users aren’t happy with the way that Spotify Wrapped looked this year, complaining that it was boring, and not as creative as previous years. […]
One of the most common complaints seems to be that Spotify Wrapped has misreported on the stats in claims to represent. Now, while this has happened in previous years, this year it seems to be a whole lot more prevalent — as you can see in this Spotify support thread. It’s filled with users complaining about top artists they’ve never listened to, songs appearing in at the top of their lists that they didn’t even know existed, or a mixture of the two.
Just anecdotally talking with people outside the internet-o-sphere and you’ll quickly find people with iffy Spotify Wrapped statistics. I have friends who listen exclusively to bizarre, underground punk acts, and their Wrappeds were topped by the likes of The Weeknd and Taylor Swift. Even on the Tom’s Guide team, we’ve seen strangeness — our own Millie Fender discovered Swift among her top artists, yet her songs didn’t appear in her top 100.
Just read people’s reactions online, especially in the trending topic on X or even the announcement thread on Reddit. Many are blaming Spotify’s pivot to AI this year for the lack of personality, and some even hold it responsible for their weird Spotify statistics. I have reached out to Spotify for comment, but I am yet to hear a response.
What can we do?
First off, there are other streaming platforms with year-end roundups. Deezer, for example, has unleashed My Deezer Year, and like everything the French streamer does, it’s filled with creativity and personality. That’s a streaming service with better sound quality too. Apple Music has its Replay feature, which similarly takes you through your year. There are options.
If you’re duty-bound to Spotify, then there is a way to really check your most-listened-to artists, songs, and genres — Track your listening with Last.FM, for example, which gives you breakdowns over the course of the year. Whatever happens, I (and many others) are hoping that Spotify Wrapped is a whole lot better next year.
My Wrapped was way different this year from last year. I listen to music all day every day. I have a 24-hour playlist for every day of the week, Spotify says I listened to 326,614 minutes this year. These playlists are all different. Monday is 70s R&B Motown, Tuesday is Rock/Punk/Grunge, Wednesday is Rocksteady/Two Tone/3rd wave Ska, Thursday is Classical, Friday is Hip Hop, Saturday is Country, and Sunday is Jazz.
Last year my Wrapped had a wide range of artists and genres that represented the wide range of music I listen to. This year it was just Reggae and Ska. I had only two top artists that were not, the Rolling Stones and Glenn Miller. The Rolling Stones I can see but Glenn Miller is not even that prevalent in my Jazz playlist.
I don’t know if it’s all fucked up but I do know it’s miles different than what it gave me for the same playlists and similar listening time last year.
Edit: I fucked up Monday.