Spotify was really trying to hype up Wrapped this year, their yearly music statistic recap. On one hand, I love Wrapped because its an opportunity for people who don't typically talk about music to share their tastes. On the other, some people get really defensive about it, turning it into a competition. And then there are the people who use Soulseek and piracy, tweeting out "people still use Spotify?". Luckily, the people who take Wrapped too seriously are going to hate this year.
Hi Story
Spotify Wrapped started in 2016, originally just as a website with a bunch of your stats and a playlist of your top songs. However, in 2019, they integrated the Wrapped feature into the application (now you can't view it on a computer!). But the biggest game changer was making them into a story format, similar to Instagram stories. This was a game changer, because it meant that people would actually share these things, generating free publicity for Spotify. Since then, people have started taking Wrapped seriously.
To understand why Wrapped this year was a little different, you have to know what Wrapped was like in previous years. Each year (especially since 2021), the Spotify creative team throws together a completely new design for Wrapped. They usually go all out with these designs, in fact 40% of the creative budget goes into them (that's a lie). These designs usually are okay, with a few elements that are so ugly you ask how it got approved.
On top of that, usually the following information is included:
- Minutes listened
- Artists
- Top 5
- Listener percentage of the top artist
- Songs
- Top 5
- Most listened in a single day
- Top 5 genres
- Some random gimmick thing
- Recap card with most info on one page
Years
2020
In 2020, there was some cool design elements, but most of the design was based off a multicolored gradient. It was fairly unremarkable in my opinion, mainly relying on generic "2020 sucked" humor and a guess your top artist minigame.
There is a blog post on the Spotify design blog about this: How we Brought 2020 Wrapped to Life in the Mobile App
2021
2021 was when they started trying to take these things seriously and be cool with the kids. Wrapped 2021 used a ribbon focused design style, which I think looks nice, but it also tried using a lot of slang. Opening it would immediately ask "Ready to get into the thick of it?"
Now, I would like to mention this is when people started getting personalized Wrappeds (idk what the plural version is). For example, some people had a "If life was a movie" section. Here's a video of the 2021 Wrapped:
A lot of the slang and forced relatability didn't age well. Mentions of NFTs and "You deserve a playlist as long as your skincare routine" are just really out of place in a music app. Plus, I don't think everyone has a skincare routine, so it was weird that message was shown to everyone. I at least think for males, they could of changed that to "You deserve a playlist as long as your longest edge", however edging wasn't mainstream back then.
There were 2 gimmicks in 2021, an audio aura, as well as a 2 truths and a lie minigame. Audio aura is a fun one honestly, most recaps still do something similar.
2021 was when Spotify started shoving podcasts down the throats of users, and that was apparent this Wrapped, as if you listened to basically just one podcast, you would have a slide for them.
Genres
Whoa, I'm on heading 4.
Despite all of this, the most infamous part of the 2021 Wrapped has to be the genres. In 2021, Spotify started internally creating a bunch of genres. You can see a lot of these genres on Every Noise at Once. Some of the genres were just stupid, for example "Dream SMP", "Friday Night Funkin", or the most infamous of all "pov: indie". POV is just any popular alternative music, and is Spotify's way of calling you basic. However, it's so broad it's almost a challenge to not get this unless you're listening to underground music. This would continue to become more and more of a problem in following years.
However, the biggest thing, and I think the thing most people remember this Wrapped for, was the presentation of the genres screen. I'm assuming the staff thought they were being edgy by breaking traditional design conventions. However, I'm guessing most people just thought images failed to load. With that being said, I proudly present what I think is one of the ugliest designs a modern tech company has put out in recent time:
2022
This year, the design of Wrapped was once again fun, but in a different way. This design almost reminds me of Halloween. Here's a video, once again:
I think the most fun thing about 2022 was the planets thing. That was cool. However, I wonder how long you actually had to listen to a genre for it to count, because I've never seen anyone with a genre's listened count above 40.
There were 2 gimmicks this year, the first being a how you start your day thing titled "Audio Day". You might recognize this, because it would later on become the daylist playlist. A fun fact is that if you had the URL, you could actually use the daylist playlist almost 2 years before it was officially released. Of course, back then it had no branding. There are also other similar hidden playlists, such as Song of the Day (which still uses the Wrapped 2022 branding).
Gimmick 2 was another personality thing, similar to last year. The main difference is that it was a play on the 16 Personalities test, especially with giving you a 4 letter combo as your personality.
New this year was a Roblox game, as a way to get into the metaverse. This doesn't matter.
In 2021, 100 artists could record a video as a thank you to top fans. This year, a bunch more artists could do the same thing. This feature is good in concept, but in reality you're watching a bunch of people awkwardly say thank you. I don't know, it just feels forced.
2023
2023 was a really good one actually. The design was wacky and hip, while not being ugly. In 2023, the theme was scribbles with different brushes and stuff like that. It just somehow works. It isn't perfect, but I think it's executed good enough.
The gimmicks this year were also really good. For example, you were assigned a location on the map, but it wasn't just California. It was actually unique. Another nice addition was a graph of what month you listened to each of your top artists the most on.
Once again, there was another personality assignment thing, this time with cool art. There isn't much to say about this one, it's just good. It could of been a little better optimized, but still good.
2024
So... this is where 2024 comes in. Spotify did a lot of hyping up for this year. I remember at the start of November seeing something from them about how Wrapped continues counting past October, but all I could find was this Tweet from last year:
Hmm, that doesn't sound right to us. Don’t worry, Wrapped is still counting past Oct. 31 👀 https://t.co/44bFBUURLz
— Spotify (@Spotify) October 26, 2023
Wrapped was released today, and from what I hear, most people who care hate it. Most casual people didn't care.
However, I feel this year they didn't really put as much thought into it. The main theme this year was the number 24, with trails behind it. Alright. It looks Nice.
The biggest change, however, has to be the removal of genres. They weren't exactly removed, but instead of shown normally, they turned the "Audio Day" gimmick from 2022 into the whole thing, and instead had it show how your taste evolved. Instead of using clear genre names, it used auto generated names similar to daylist, such as "Chill Synthesizer Neo-Psychedelic". Whatever.
A weird thing was that there weren't that many gimmicks this year. It felt more like a slideshow of just listening facts. There wasn't anything fun about it. I know I was complaining about them trying too hard in 2021, but it feels like this year they didn't try hard enough.
However, there is one more gimmick. For one, there is an AI generated podcast about your listening, made with NotebookLM. This is one of the most boring podcasts I have ever listened to. This is how I imagine blind people experience Wrapped.
My Opinion
I don't use Spotify.