This year, Spotify Wrapped came out late — and people noticed. Spotify Wrapped, along with every other streaming service’s version of an end of the year recap, has become something of an end of the year tradition. It is something that spotify users look forward to and dread in equal parts, and since its introduction in 2015 it has exploded across the internet. Virtually every other music streaming service has its own version. Other online services, such as Duolingo, have also begun offering similar end of the year recaps. There are numerous fan made websites where you can upload your data on an app to get your Tinder or TikTok wrapped. These websites, along with the popularity of wrapped and its knockoffs, show that people love these celebrations. But are they really celebrating their uniqueness, or the prevalence of AI and surveillance capitalism?
Pick any app that you interact with on a regular basis. There is a decent chance that it has some form of end-of-the-year-wrapped. If it doesn’t have an official, in-app one, there is an even higher chance some fan has made a website where you can get an unofficial one. For example, Tinderwrapped.com allows you to see at what rate you matched with other users of the site, how many profiles you looked at, how many messages you sent, and more. The site also offers Hinge wrapped.
What people don’t seem to question when receiving these recaps is the amount of individualised data these apps store about you. This could be because the information a music streaming site has on you seems benign; it’s hard to imagine a nefarious use for the knowledge that you had a “pink pilates princess strut pop” or “old money coastal grandmother” phase. But the data from a dating site is potentially much more sensitive. The prevalence of wrapped culture could be a signifier that people have accepted the possibility of a surveillance capitalist state, or they simply could have not thought of end of year wrapped content in this context.
Spotify introduced the first iteration of wrapped in 2015, calling it “year in music.” It was very different from the recent wrappeds, as it was a simple end of the year email. Since then, the feature has evolved quite a bit. Features such as “sound town” were experimented with but didn’t stick, while the top 100 playlist was a fan favorite and a permanent fixture.
This year, something new was added: AI. Over the past year, Spotify has been adding more AI features. These have included a DJ and an AI playlist generation feature (which is currently in beta). The company took Spotify Wrapped as an opportunity to push these features hard. In practice, the AI playlist generator missed most of the time, although it had a few hits; mostly it just rearranged your top songs in new ways. The DJ Wrapped felt higher quality and gave a pretty good overview of both your top songs and the top songs of the year.
Whether this was the final push that will make AI an integral part of Spotify or it was the final failure that will prompt Spotify to cut their losses and give up on AI entirely is something that may not be known till next year’s wrapped comes out.
