Spotify Is Using You
The streaming behemoth has once again ensnared us in its icky web with their latest Wrapped campaign.
It’s that special time of year when music publications collectively pretend December doesn’t exist so their year-end lists can rack up more traffic before January. Which also means it’s time for Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature, which analyzes each user’s listening data and spits out a glorified PowerPoint presentation on it, along with shareable graphics. This year’s version touched down yesterday; if you don’t see it when you go to the Spotify app, that means you need to update to a new version, or maybe even update your entire iPhone, as I had to, just so Spotify could tell me what I already kinda knew about my own listening habits. Thanks for forcing me to finally update to iOS 18, I guess?
This year’s Wrapped is even more soul-crushing than before. Spotify worked with a Google A.I. tool to churn out individualized Wrapped podcasts in which two “hosts” recap and compliment your taste for a few minutes. If you enjoy robots congratulating you for spending thousands of hours on an app that is actively ruining musicians’ livelihoods, then give it a whirl. The joke about Spotify is that they’re more interested in pushing podcasts (and more recently audiobooks) than music—even in their signature year-end music feature, that now rings true.
