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Spotify Wrapped: should we be concerned?

An explanation of the 2024 Spotify Wrapped and an opinion on its cons
Spotify sends out oddly personal ads to users and sells their data.
Spotify sends out oddly personal ads to users and sells their data.
Ethan Chenevert
New year, new stuff
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 105 Issue 2 of our news magazine the Amplifier.

Every year, the streaming app Spotify releases its own annual review that covers your top artists, top tracks you listened to, the genres you mainly listened to the previous year. 

Every year about 256 million people use Spotify to listen to their music, and about 252 million people pay for the “Spotify Premium” subscription across 184 regions. 

This translates and makes calculations to the user’s following of artists, your top songs, along with what genre it is, and how many minutes you have towards that genre, that song, and that artist. That goes for every song and artist you listen to, leading to a final calculation of total minutes listened.

Niko Hollabaugh, sophomore, listens to his music on Spotify.

“This year in total I had over 150,000 [minutes] which was actually more than last year,” Hollabaugh said. “Last year I had I think 90,000.”

It also puts your top artists into a leaderboard, showcasing who you listened to the most.

“In the past three years, my number one artist was Lil Tjay,” Hollabaugh said.

Lil Tjay was the top artist for 0.00002% of listeners. 

“I love Lil Tjay. Lil Tjay has been my favorite artist for a period of time now,” Hollabaugh said. “I could argue that Lil Tjay is better than any other rapper out there.” 

Spotify Wrapped also tracks your top songs. “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter received the most streams across all songs across the world, racking up 1,822,419,755 streams along with 3,536,926 streams daily. Songs like “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone and “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eillish were also very popular and very highly streamed songs. “Beautiful Things” had 1,739,635,403 and “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” totaled 1,842,386,342 streams. 

Overall the public’s opinion on Spotify Wrapped hasn’t changed, it is very popular and liked throughout the US and throughout the world.

“I think the idea of Spotify Wrapped is really cool,” Hollabaugh said. “It gives the people out there who listen to Spotify a chance to see who they listen to, what genre, and what songs they really like, which is what I think we deserve.”

Spotify Wrapped: Mining data and emotional manipulation
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 105 Issue 2 of our news magazine the Amplifier.

Over the years, Spotify Wrapped has become a global sensation without any kind of need for introduction, but the practices used in getting the data and the selling of it are extremely dangerous.

The idea of Spotify Wrapped is simply data mining packaged in a bright and colorful way. Spotify has found a way to market its surveillance of people into a free advertising campaign. Everything included in your wrapped is from a treasure trove of data that is monitored by their artificial intelligence, such as an old ad of theirs that read, “Dear person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine’s Day, What did you do?” 

It sends out plenty of other oddly personal ads to individual users with this data, as well as sells their data.

Some people may think that selling this data isn’t a problem, but this data is used against users by marketers with tactics of emotional manipulation.

Marketers can figure out what to sell users based on songs listened to, especially if people listen to angsty teen music or heartbreak albums, all coming from an emotional and vulnerable place, making it easier to advertise and get others to buy.

Not only this, Spotify has filed a patent that allows themselves to make suggestions based on your emotional state, gender, age, social setting, and even your accent. All of this is clear emotional surveillance, showing a deep underlying problem with Spotify’s tracking and Spotify.

All this has also spawned plenty of other versions of the attempt to steal your data and market it as fun, such as YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.

Spotify Wrapped has started a trend in data tracking that should not be celebrated, it should be stopped.

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