Words by Finn Norris and Harry Turnbull
An Ageing Tradition
Nine Decembers ago, Spotify launched a surprise feature that allowed users to reflect simply on their ‘year in music’. Since Wrapped 2015’s tagline, it has become so much more. I’m sure the number of queer listeners who came together on Twitter to discover that their summer was unanimously the season of pink and Pilates can vouch for the growing bizarreness of it all. Maybe Chappell Roan played a part in the emphasis of this theme, but the sarcastic consensus that the platform was pushing microaggressions onto the LGBTQ+ community does have some validity. The nonsense interpretation of our listening habits goes hand in hand with the increased shareability of the platform – one can now watch Wrapped like a social media story and equally share it with theirs within just two clicks – it’s all part of Spotify’s game, and it’s been a brilliantly effective one. However, if we remove the extra content, the app doesn’t lay out all too much that isn’t already rather quotidian information.
But if we remove the extra content, Spotify doesn’t really lay out much that isn’t already incredibly quotidian information we could be aware of if we tried. Apart from those who long before December dread the amount of minutes they spent listening to some form of comfort music, or that undroppable soundtrack, it isn’t far-fetched to say that the element of surprise and excitement around Wrapped owes itself entirely to how Spotify spends the other 11 months of the year deciding what you listen to. Spotify has long been hailed for its options to explore whilst simultaneously offering tailor-made listening experiences, and in recent years the platform’s AI features have heightened this to an extent that makes all the different examples of algorithms hard to identify.
The Issue of the Algorithm
Wrapped’s functionality is based on the idea that we allow them to track all our data. If you are like me and express yourself through music curation and consumption, I can guarantee you Spotify knows about every heartbreak, promotion, success, and loss. I must say it can be difficult to see all that is thrown back at me at the end of each year. This is partly because of the nostalgia and recollection of the feelings which can be scary in some instances. However, at a deeper level, it is also the acknowledgement that we are almost being stalked. Our every musical decision and experience is, as much as we wish it was, not autonomous. The algorithm knows all, as it does with search history and advertising. However, is it really a problem, or have we become zombies to the virus of the algorithm?
Walking around campus the day Spotify Wrapped 2024 was released, I spoke to some unfortunate students who awkwardly agreed to give their insights on their Spotify (or otherwise) experiences. Worryingly but unsurprisingly, the general consensus concluded that the impact of the algorithm is past all hope, and it is best to just accept it and move on with our lives. One of our participants claimed quite calmly how fed up her FBI agent would be because she’s “always crying”. This made me laugh quite an abhorrent amount, but there is also an element of truth to it. The algorithm knows when we are sad and when we are happy and will throw that back in our faces with pleasure. However, the majority will accept that, and suppress any fear and anticipation of their wrapped until the most wonderful time of the year comes knocking on our door.
The Opposition: A Bundle of Nothing?
Wrapped, and Spotify as a whole will always have its foes, however. Part of the anti-brigade deems sharing it on your story pretentious, and maybe for good reason. One person’s music taste rarely fails to share any sort of common ground with another’s, and social media’s echo chambers are arguably homogenising our listening choices. Most of the time, there’s never anything impressive to see, and what is impressive anyway – somehow everyone ends up in a very low percentile for their top artist – are the numbers inflated? Whilst the platform has never cleared up what makes a ‘listener’ in this section of Wrapped, it’s not far-fetched to assume the benchmark is low given that 30 seconds of listening on Spotify already qualifies a stream, and the same 30-second stream quantifies in with an artist’s ‘monthly listeners’. Maybe the haters are onto something, unless you’re in the 0.0001 per cent of Bob Dylan listeners, then good for you I guess.
So What?
It still is increasingly clear that Wrapped is going nowhere: as the strange words and funky imagery attached to the most recent Wrapped(s) show us, Spotify seems to have no shortage of ways to grab our attention and perpetuate the whole ordeal, no matter if you choose to raise a pitchfork or turn a blind eye to it. With AI, opportunities are unfortunately endless. As expressed in the desperation of Harry’s interviewees, the platform’s domination in the digital music market and role in the industry makes any attempt to stop the platform from hoovering up data impossible. It’s this same data which the app itself and Wrapped thrive on: the algorithms providing ‘personalised’ listening experiences reduce users’ choice in what they listen to, and the others that power the data behind Wrapped ensure it will continue to roll around each year with experiences becoming more and more at two opposites: Wow, I listened to that (that much)! Or, Did I really listen to that (that much)?
An Expanding Tradition
As for those who may stay clear of the platform, Apple and Amazon’s music divisions have been scrambling to try to cash in on the cultural event spawned by Spotify, and even those who stick to physical or ‘just don’t like music’ (are you okay?) aren’t safe from a surge of more peculiar Wrapped-inspired recaps: last year saw the Sainsbury’s Nectar card app provide users with stats and rankings even at an item specific level. We seem to be in a helpless era of data ethics where those collecting it can brazenly dangle their haul in front of victims to somehow lure them back in again. It’s likely more will follow suit on this trend. Who knows, maybe in 5 years the information economy will have found a way to make the data stored in the calculator app into a fun slideshow for us.
The full wrapped video by Marianne Carney and Harry Turnbull is available on The Badger’s YouTube channel!