Why Spotify Wrapped Failed
A case study on the limitations of outsourcing to AI & opportunities for successful AI integration
Consumers want to see new insights about themselves, not a regurgitation of their mobile utilization data.
Spotify learned that the hard way after releasing their 2024 Spotify Wrapped, their highly anticipated end of the year campaign tailoring a year’s worth of user music data into shareable infographics.
However, widespread criticism about Spotify Wrapped quickly hit social media, with many Spotify users expressing their displeasure at the new updates made to the beloved Spotify Wrapped. Keep reading for my full analysis.
What’s different about this year’s Spotify Wrapped?
Tech Layoffs & AI Optimization
This year, Spotify laid off 1,500 workers and went all in on AI to outsource their labor. One of those initiatives was Spotify Wrapped. This year, Spotify Wrapped included a “Wrapped AI podcast” that used Google’s NotebookLM technology to verbally recap users’s listening habits.
Spotify removed other aspects of Spotify Wrapped such as top genres, geographic location, and genre personality and replaced it with more data, such as the number of minutes I listened to Taylor Swift and that I listened to classical pop music back in April…this is nice to know but doesn’t provide me any value.
Consumer Response
Consumers overwhelmingly found this year’s Spotify Wrapped to be “boring,” “underwhelming,” and “lazy.”
As a fellow Spotify user, I agree with them:
Where’s my custom genre personality? I was looking forward to seeing that only to be disappointed that Spotify removed that feature.
Where do I stand with other members of the Spotify community? There was no connection between me and communities around the world
Why are you telling me information I already know about myself? I know which artists I listen to more and what music I like. What I was curious to know is how do I fare among other listeners of similar artists, what type of music personality am I, and my top genres.
Why did Spotify Wrapped get so weird? The tone and theme of this year’s Spotify Wrapped felt weird and oddly stale to me. The AI hosts of my Spotify Wrapped sounded jargony and robotic, and when they spoke using trendy language, it further emphasized their artificiality.
Why does this matter?
Spotify has a net worth of 95.2 billion as of Dec 11, 2024. Its market cap has increased by 166% in one year, making this company one of the largest dominators in the music streaming space.
Spotify Wrapped is Spotify’s biggest marketing campaign of the year.
Spotify’s net mentions on social media peak once people start sharing their Spotify Wrapped summaries, so having a marketing campaign that is shareable and widely applauded is critical to reinforcing Spotify’s position in the market.
Spotify’s Response
While many users were unimpressed with the new Spotify Wrapped, a Spotify spokesperson said it was the biggest year yet for their platform.
“In the first 12 hours, this year’s Wrapped was the biggest we’ve seen, up over 26 per cent compared to day one in 2023,” Spotify said.
Furthermore, Spotify defended their choice to maximize AI in the development of Spotify Wrapped.
“The goal of Wrapped, in particular, is brand virality,” says Glenn McDonald, former data alchemist at Spotify. “There’s not much this year of data storytelling.”
Although still successful in terms of number of engagements, the 2024 Spotify Wrapped lost a bet on AI because replacing humans with AI diminished the humanistic elements users loved most, impacting user favorability of the brand and opening the door for music streaming competitors to fill this gap for users.
Spotify lost sight of why users like Spotify Wrapped: not for a list of utilization data but a personalized yearly retrospective of who you are based on your music tastes.
Tiffany’s Recommendations on Successful AI Integration
📍Pinpoint user values. Before diving into a tech solution, understand what problems your users are trying to solve. Build the solution around the user - it could even be a low tech solution depending on your user and the challenges.
📖 Keep storytelling front and center. In a world full of endless amounts of data, don’t throw data at users for the sake of being seen as data-driven. Use your data to drive your value proposition and build your brand narrative.
🛠️ Test before scaling. When introducing a new AI feature or new AI element into an existing product, be wary of consumer anxiety around AI and how the product will change with this new implementation. Test in smaller samples the MVP and use this data to inform how to scale the feature.