Personalized Spotify Recaps: How Good I Was on January 9th, 2015 and Why I Wanna Listen Like It Was Christmas? A New Look at a Old Problem

This AI-enhanced version of Wrapped arrives at a time when users are expressing concerns about Big Tech’s surveillance of their behavior and rampant data collection. Spotify in particular has faced criticism for rebranding its precise tracking of user activity as a cozy and sharable holiday gift. A lot of people still don’t like the idea of Artificial intelligence-generatedpods, which feature virtual hosts that seem eerie in their attempts to sound human.

Some other changes include the ability to see your longest listening streak for your top five artists and an update to the “share” button that will show you whether the audio you’re sharing is in your top 100 songs, top 20 artists, or top five podcasts.

Apple Music,YouTube Music, and even Amazon Music all had personalized recaps on Wrapped this year. Still, there’s no doubt which entry in recap season is the most discussed one.

It is totally personalized to your liking. The two hosts speak in the second person when addressing users. In addition to providing you with hard facts (like your top artist and total number of minutes you spent listening), the hosts will analyze the data Spotify has collected about you. They’ll flatter you—they told me I’m a “tastemaker,” and called my music taste “so diverse” and “so unique.” They will come up with a lifestyle based on your listening habits. They told me that they could picture me singing to the Rent soundtrack in the shower while wearing pink pilates gear and dancing down the street. At one point, they asked what I was doing on January 9th, the day I listened to a lot of music.