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Try some Spanish-language music, you cowards!
Phones Editor Axel here, jumping in with a PSA that Spanish-language music can still be enjoyable even if you’ve only got a 13-day streak on Duolingo. I’ll confess that I was first exposed to Mexican corrido star Peso Pluma on TikTok, but ever since hearing the artist’s trumpet-laden “Ella Baila Sola” as part of whatever ridiculous trend was sweeping the social media platform at the time, my ears have seldom been spared the brass and guitarrón.
“La Durango” and “Santal 33” are the two best songs (objectively, not subjectively) on Pluma’s latest album, Éxodo, and Grian Chatten – of Fontaines DC fame – rounds out my Top Songs list with no less than three appearances (the post-punk Dubliner appears as a feature on Hinds’ excellent “Stranger”). Heck, call me Mr. Worldwide.
Now, it’s time for Josephine Watson, TechRadar’s Managing Editor for Lifestyle, to unpack Spotify Wrapped 2024.
Spotify Wrapped is a theatre kid hater
Like many of the TechRadar team, my Spotify Wrapped was dominated by several artists from what I like to call “The Four Horsegirls of the aPOPcalypse”. Sabrina Carpenter is my top artist (I too, work late, and I’m also a singer), but I’m also in the top 0.05% of Good Luck, Babe! listeners, with Chappell holding all top three of my most-played tracks. In case you’re curious, Olivia Rodrigo and Charli XCX are the other two Horsegirls and are among my most played.
However, I am, as always, frustrated by my Wrapped playlist, which is regularly skewed by the fact that I listen to a lot of show tunes that rarely make it into my lists, which I think is down to how artist attribution works on Spotify. Erika Henningsen of Hazbin Hotel fame made it by the skin of her teeth because she’s also on the Mean Girls original Broadway cast recording, both of which were on frequent rotation this year.
Rant over, but the sooner they make a show tune specific streaming platform, just you wait, vengeance will be mine.
Next up, TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief Marc McLaren is sharing his Spotify Wrapped.
What even is ‘Equestrian Western Heartland Rock’?
Apparently, I’m in the top 0.05% of Bruce Springsteen fans, which would be impressive if not for the fact that my colleague Jacob Krol is almost certainly in the top 0.00005% of fans. But while I’m delighted to be one of The Boss’ top fans, I don’t understand why Spotify categorizes his music as ‘Equestrian Western Heartland Rock’. Or, for that matter, what ‘Indieheads Ritual Indie Rock’ is.
Is it helpful to have these categories? Is it just meant to be playful? Maybe I take it all too seriously, but I’d rather have a deeper insight into everything I listened to than have quite so much meme-friendly nonsense like this. Spotify has a massive amount of data about my listening habits, so why does it not tell me more about it?
I get a playlist with my top songs – but it doesn’t tell me how many times I listened to each. I get a bunch of playlists I’m not remotely interested in (‘Top Viral Hits of 2024’ – yeah, whatever), but I have no data on which of my playlists I listened to most. It’s all so superficial.
What a surprise!
Shocking, really, none of my work colleagues, friends, family, or even myself, Bruce Springsteen, came out on top as my number one artist. Out of 555 artists I listened to in 2024, my listening streak with Springsteen at its peak was 13 days. I’m in the top 0.05% of his fans – though, I’d say I trend higher if you count other platforms – and we spent 6,382 minutes together. I guess I was just born to listen to Springsteen, and Spotify called me an “overachiever.”
Next up was Olivia Rodrigo, and that makes sense, considering both Sour and Guts are excellent, but my favorite track of hers wound up as my top-played song – Love Is Embarrassing. Then came Taylor Swift, Bleachers, and Hannah Montana – I guess it’s a combination of pop, Jersey rock, and nostalgia.
Alongside the lovely walk through the year courtesy of Wrapped, I also quite liked the AI-powered Wrapped Podcast made in conjunction with Google’s NotebookLM.
Jacob Krol, TechRadar’s Managing Editor for News, stepping in to share some thoughts on Spotify Wrapped 2024, as well as what some of my colleagues think about their own results this year.
It’s clear, though, that Wrapped has taken over today, with Spotify’s faithful sharing their own 2024 hits all across social. My own Instagram is flooded with stories at the top showing top tracks and top artists, which the service automatically creates.
48,650 minutes in 2023 vs 102,757 minutes in 2024
When I said to myself at the start of the year that I would dive deeper into exploring new music in 2024, this is certainly not what I had anticipated. I looked at this as the perfect chance to put a test on myself, and it’s safe to say that I passed with flying colors.
Being the self-scribed music enthusiast I am, even my jaw dropped when I saw my total minutes had more than doubled this year. According to my AI Wrapped Podcast, that puts me in the top 0.8% of listeners globally, a statistic so small that I couldn’t even fathom – so let me grab a calculator. There are 252 million paying Spotify subscribers therefore 0.8% equals 2,016,000, and I sit comfortably somewhere in that ballpark. Spotify, does that mean I get a plaque? Maybe a t-shirt at least?
Wait, no more ‘Sound Town’?
Since Spotify Wrapped 2024 dropped, my TikTok ‘For you’ page has been inundated with music fans expressing a slight disappointment with this year’s music roundup, claiming that the features this year are ‘boring’ in comparison to previous years.
Though I’ll admit that I don’t think they’re as shareable as last year’s humorous Sound Town feature, one that I predicted would return given the discourse it sparked online last year, I think they’re still pleasantly engaging – and the AI podcast is a very impressive addition to Spotify’s annual music recap, probably the stand-out for me.
Upon first listen, I was very impressed by its knowledge of specific release dates and the depth of its analysis of your listening habits. Not only was I deemed a “true music lover” and “a true music connoisseur”, but I was honored to be officially recognized as “royalty among Beyoncé fans” after giving myself that title for years.
2024 is the year I turned country
So apparently, I’m a country gal now? Who would’ve thought! To say I’m surprised with my top artists would be a lie, and since I correctly guessed all five I’d say that I have a pretty solid awareness of who I’ve been listening to the most over the past year.
But what surprised me the most was the result of my top five songs. Because the scope of my listening habits has been significantly more widespread than ever this year, my top songs were hard to pin down. While I knew deep down that Cowboy Carter would be my most-streamed album this year, the influence of Taylor Swift and Charli xcx’s banger album Brat has been unprecedented, and I was convinced that they would creep in somehow.
However, to my surprise, Beyonce has yet to be dethroned from my Spotify Wrapped. Not only has she come out on top as not just my most-streamed artist for another year running, but five songs from Cowboy Carter occupy my most-streamed songs list. Excuse me, I’m just off to fetch my cowboy hat and boots.
And with that, it’s time to hand over these Spotify Wrapped liveblog reins to someone who’s got his ear far closer to the musical ground than me, our Editorial Executive Rowan Davies…
The AI playlists are worth dabbling with
I must admit I’ve barely touched Spotify’s AI playlist feature, which rolled out a few months ago – but it’s become a bit more interesting with its Wrapped twist. They’re a little bit buried, hiding in the ‘Your Library’ tab at the base of the app under the ‘+’ icon.
You can now put a Wrapped spin on playlist, for example asking it to “make me a playlist with my Top songs that are perfect for a workout”. I’m not super-keen on musical echo chambers, so asked it to make me a playlist of songs inspired by my top artists of 2024, with mixed results.
Spotify lets you provide feedback on its results with little ‘+’ icons to keep songs you’re happy with, so the more we use the better it’ll get.
Look out for Taylor Swift’s new Spotify easter eggs
An important part of the Wrapped experience is finding out just how far you’ve drifted from the musical zeitgeist. But no-one will be surprised to discover that Taylor Swift has again been the number one most-streamed artist globally, according to Spotify – and the numbers are truly incredible.
Swift was responsible for over 26.6 billion streams on Spotify this year, enough for several for every person on earth. She’s so popular that Spotify has baked in a few easter eggs for fans, including “a custom mini-animation tailored to the eras of her discography” (like Sparkles and Seagulls) on Spotify’s Play button. They’ll apparently being rolling out today, so keep your eyes peeled, Swifties…
Why did Google get involved in Wrapped this year?
The new Wrapped AI podcast is a pretty nice addition to Spotify’s recap, and Google’s explained how it works.
Steven Johnson, Head of Editorial at Google Labs, said Google created a new version of a Gemini AI model called Flash specifically to handle the millions of custom podcasts that needed to be generated.
“It was quite an impressive engineering effort,” Johnson said. “It’s been a great collaboration because it’s given us some techniques that we’re gonna be able to bring back to NotebookLM.”
It’ll apparently also be the first of many NotebookLM collaborations. “We look forward to a lot of different partnerships, both on the audio front and also just on the text front,” Johnson added. Hmm, surely it’s planning something for YouTube too?
Is Wrapped missing features this year?
A fair amount of the online chatter about Wrapped this year is that it’s missing quite a few favorite features from previous years, and I have to agree.
There’s no in-depth genre breakdowns (other than Spotify’s made-up ones like ‘Apocalyptic Permanent Wave Rock’) and Spotify has ditched Sound Town (which paired you with a city, based on your music tastes) which was big on social media last year.
This year’s Wrapped does feel quite superficial, considering the amount of data Spotify could draw upon to make interesting connections and recommendations like Last.fm. But those new AI features has obviously taken priority and the AI podcast is a fun addition that could perhaps grow in depth in 2025.
AI DJ vs Wrapped AI podcast: what’s the difference?
Spotify appears to have two very similar AI-powered features in Wrapped 2024; a review of your year from its AI DJ, plus that new NotebookLM-powered Wrapped AI podcast. So how do they differ?
The main difference is that the AI DJ is a single radio host who’ll then actually play some songs based on your musical adventures in 2024. The Wrapped AI podcast, meanwhile, is an AI-powered conversation between two hosts about your listening habits, but doesn’t include any songs.
Also, the AI DJ is for Premium subscribers only, whereas all Spotify listeners get the Wrapped AI podcast. I’m personally not a huge fan of AI DJ because it tends to play me songs I’ve already worn out, but I’ll give this special Wrapped version a spin to see if it’s more insightful…
My Wrapped feels about right
There’s always a worry that Wrapped is going to expose you as a secret top 1% Phil Collins fan, even if you only played it on request from your car passengers – but this year my top artists and songs were kind of as I expected.
I’ve gone pretty hard and Big Thief and Floating Points this year, the latter partly as it’s also ideal working music. Sometimes I was Spotify had a ‘work mode’ to separate that listening from true, chin-stroking intentional listening. Jon Hopkins also made a late charge thanks to his excellent ambient headphones album Ritual.
My only annoyance is that more of my top listening wasn’t from 2024 band albums I also loved this year like English Teacher and King Hannah. Maybe next year guys…
Is Wrapped for both Free and Premium subscribers?
The answer is yes and no. Free Spotify subscribers do get a Wrapped recap – and impressively this year, they also get the new ‘Your Spotify Wrapped AI Podcast’ feature, which is available to everyone for a “limited time”.
But a couple of Wrapped features are reserved for Premium subscribers. Those are the ones related to the AI DJ – which this year commentates on your year in music like a radio show – and the AI Playlist features (above), which lets you create personalized playlists from your Wrapped data.
For example, you can ask it to make a playlist based on “artists similar to my top five” or one for “my top genres”. Did someone say echo chamber?
AI Wrapped podcast impressions – an impressive debut
Okay, I’ve just listened to my AI podcast, and it’s actually better than I was expecting. Initially, it feels like you’ve just commissioned two podcast hosts to stroke your musical ego, with my ones cooing “talk about exclusive taste” and “wow, that’s impressive” for my total number of minutes.
But there’s also some nice added depth. For my top artist Big Thief, the AI podcast fills in some background info on the recording process for Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, talking about the locations for the different sessions.
I’m less keen on Spotify’s kooky sub-genres like ‘Pumpkin Spice Hollywood Indie’, but overall it’s definitely a fun addition to this year’s Wrapped.
How do you find and share your new Wrapped AI podcast?
The star of this year’s Wrapped 2024 is definitely the new AI podcast, which has just landed for me – even though it’s fairly short at just over three minutes long. It’s rolling out for a “limited time” in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and Sweden only, so it’s worth playing it soon.
You can either find it in your Wrapped home feed (by tapping the banner in the Home tab) or by tapping the app’s ‘Search’ function and typing in “Your Spotify Wrapped AI podcast”. You can also share the unique podcast with others (assuming it’s safe for public consumption) by tapping the share icon underneath the playback menu.
Now, let’s try and have a listen without cringing too hard…
Here’s what Wrapped 2024 looks like
While I wait for the full Wrapped to hit my app, I’ve watched my slideshow in the mobile player (above). It’s pretty similar to previous years, with the main new feature being ‘Your Music Evolution’.
That shows you your particular music obsessions at three different times of the year. Apparently I was into ‘Atmospheric Ritual Ambient’ in September, which sounds a bit Wicker Man but I’ll take it…
Isn’t Wrapped a bit late this year?
Early December feels a little late for Wrapped, but it’s not an unusual time for Spotify to hit the rollout button. Last year, it did land on November 29, but in 2019 it appeared on December 5, while the year before it arrived even later on December 6.
So while it feels like Wrapped should be a late-November affair, the more common rule now is that it lands on a Wednesday, which it’s done for the last five years now. Have we just done a Wrapped-style analysis of Wrapped? Well, it’s about time the tables were turned…
You may want to try the mobile web player first…
Spotify Wrapped 2024 is now officially rolling out, but not everyone (including many on the TechRadar team) are seeing it in the app yet.
But one way to see your slideshow is to open a browser on your smartphone then head directly to the Spotify web player (making sure you’re logged in on the app). You should then see the slideshow of your musical highlights, which will keep you busy while the full Wrapped heads to the app.
Yes, Wrapped is rolling out now
Spotify has finally tired of every single reply to its social media accounts being a skeleton meme with a ‘waiting for my Wrapped’ tagline – the button has been pressed, and Wrapped 2024 is rolling out now.
It’s too late to game those algorithms. The next time you open your Spotify app (making sure you’re on the latest version) you should see a Wrapped 2024 banner appear among your mixes – tap it to find the unvarnished truth of your year in music.
Alternatively, if you’re old-school or secretly checking at work, you can find Wrapped 2024 in the macOS or Windows apps, or in a web browser.