Many avid music fans look forward to one day a year: the day Spotify Spotify Wrapped. In the typical Spotify Wrapped, a colorful video plays with interesting visuals presenting your individualized data such as your top genres, artists, songs and the number of minutes you listened to that year.

Every year I’ve grown to anticipate the release of Spotify Wrapped around the holiday season, checking the app regularly when the release date rolls around. I enjoy watching the progression of my music taste over the years through Spotify Wrapped. Music is an extremely personal thing: the music you listen to can say a lot about you and is one of the greatest forms of expression. Therefore, learning your data feels personal. Spotify is aware of this and makes the wrap customized to your interests with special messages from your top artists and fun facts about your taste. These elements have always helped make the experience of Spotify wrapped feel more intimate.

Wrapped is beloved because you can share your music taste in snapshots through platforms like instagram, boast about the number of minutes you listened to and compare your taste with that of friends. The interactive nature of sharing Wrapped results makes it a fun way to engage with others who share a passion for music. It fosters a sense of community, where everyone can join in the excitement of seeing what their fellow listeners have been enjoying.

This year, however, the Wrapped lacked the personal feel it had in previous years. It was disappointing in content and didn’t include fan favorite sections such as your top genres, what hours of the day you were listening to each genre, what months you listened to your favorite artists the most and much more. These sections provided a deeper dive into your listening habits. The absence of these features left Wrapped feeling incomplete. Another difference users noticed was the visuals lacked luster and were less detailed compared to previous years. The vibrant animation that accompanied Wrapped visuals seemed to be missing, and the overall design felt more basic. The graphics were more minimalistic, which did not capture the same excitement or make the presentation feel as special.

This year’s Wrapped didn’t just feel rushed; it also seemed less polished than before, leaving fans with lingering doubts. With the recent rise in the use of AI and algorithms shaping the way our music is curated, some fans began to wonder whether Spotify Wrapped had been affected by these technologies. Has AI played a role in the selection or presentation of our data? If so, did that influence how the stats were presented, or even the accuracy of the data itself?

Although Spotify Wrapped is still popular even for music listeners, this year’s version left many people disappointed. There’s a lot of hope that Spotify will focus more on making improvements on things like visuals, and the overall user experience in the future. Fans are still holding out for next year’s Wrapped to bring back the fun, personalized touch that made the event so exciting in the past. Spotify needs to listen to its audience and make some improvements.