The end of the year seems to skating towards us at breakneck speed, which means there is one thing on my mind.
Spotify’s end-of-year wrapped.
All year, every song you listen to is tracked by the platform and kept in a long, secret list exposing repeat favourite artists and genres only to be revealed to listeners at the end of the year.
In November, favourite artists, songs and genres will be released to its 551 million listeners in an eagerly anticipated personalised video.
So through its wrapped tradition, Spotify manages to collect our diverse range of music personalities like coins or butterflies, and in a few weeks will serve it all up in a digital manifesto.
The mortifying tunes we crawl towards when needing comfort, the brown noise we plug into when working, the 70s rock playlist which scratches the itch of nostalgia, it’s all in there displayed in a sweet, sweet symphony.
I don’t want to sound the alarm bells, but in just over a week Spotify will stop its intake of listener data, and start turning the analytic cogs to work out everyone’s top-rated tunes.
That means there is just over a week to distort the algorithm and transform the end-of-year exposé into an, ahem, Spotify Warped of sorts if you suspect your Wrapped might be more embarrassing than something to brag about.
It’s worth noting that fans of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young still won’t have their taste properly recognised.
In a devastating but admirable act nearly two years ago, the two artists pulled the plug with Spotify, to protest Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast, hosted by Spotify and charting at the top.
I rate the principled act, but I am equally miffed that once again I have to turn to other platforms to blast Young’s Old Man and, one of my favourite records of all time, Mitchell’s Blue.
With or without our favourite crooners, Wrapped is an extremely clever play from Spotify.
Targeting the grain of narcissism which exists in all of us, and transforming it into a user engagement tactic has now become a common strategy from social media.
But according to certain pockets of the internet, it’s unclear if Spotify can actually take credit for the genius.
In 2020, former Spotify intern Jewel Ham took to Twitter [now X] to air a grievance, stating she coined the idea as a project the previous year and hadn’t been given credit, or compensated.
“Since 2019, it has become an interactive user experience and that right there — was my idea!”
Spotify released a statement saying it was unfortunate that the initiative was being characterised that way.
“While ideas generated during Spotify’s internship program have on occasion informed campaigns and products, based on our internal review, that is not the case here with Spotify Wrapped.”
Whatever the origin, the scheme is brilliant because people are predictable, and we will always find information about the personal endlessly curious.
In a few weeks, a notification will pop up on millions of phones, and simultaneously we will swipe across, eager to see what we listened to and what that said about our psyche.
It’s a reminder that as we listen, so does the algorithm.
