Spotify Wrapped is an event that music enjoyers look forward to all year. It gives you the chance to look back on your year in music: your top artists, albums and songs. However, it also creates an opportunity to share your favorite songs with friends. The end of the presentation gives a bite-sized, aesthetic overview to send to friends and post to your Instagram story. The morning of the release day is spent looking through Instagram stories, comparing minutes listened, and laughing at embarrassing top songs. It’s a fun social media campaign that sparks conversation, but this year’s release was ‘wrapped’ in controversy.
On December 3, Spotify released 2025’s Spotify Wrapped. It included a message from the listener’s top artist, many of them expressing their gratitude for their listeners. But this year, many musicians are speaking out on the miniscule payments they are receiving from the platform. This business model makes it incredibly difficult for artists to profit from their music. Music Journalist Liz Pelly says that money from the subscriptions does not go directly to the artist nor does it pay per stream. Instead, the total of all subscription dollars spreads out across all of the music on Spotify by total listening percentage. Then, it is filtered through music labels and rights holders before reaching the artist. All amounting to about 0.003 cent per stream, in 2020.
While musicians feel they are not being treated properly, neither are the company’s own staff. Former employee of Spotify, Nikki Valentine, claims that approximately 2,400 staff members were replaced with AI. Many users were disappointed with the “AI look” of last year’s Wrapped, but enjoyed the artistic design of this year’s presentation. In reality, though, the 2025 Wrapped has used more AI than ever before. The software has replaced designers and programmers alike. In fact, Valentine says that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, is departing from the app and starting work at military defense AI company, Helsing.
The transition from music to military ‘defense’ draws similarities to the disturbing ICE advertisements that users on the free plan have reported. The Department of Homeland Security has been running ads urging listeners to “fulfill your mission” of reporting undocumented immigrants. Spotify told Rolling Stone, “the DHS commercials were part of a ‘broad campaign’ from the government agency and that it did not violate any advertising policies on the platform.” However, another Rolling Stone industry source claims that Spotify is being paid $74,000 to run these ads, a significantly lower amount than the $3 million Google has received. This campaign has led users to question the ‘Gen-Z’ and ‘woke’ ideology that Spotify seems to take on.
This ‘for the youth’ aesthetic that Spotify benefits from can be attributed to how it seamlessly translates to social media. Before 2019, Spotify Wrapped was not a wide-spread trend on social media, it was merely a link. This changed when former intern, Jewel Ham, developed the campaign into an interactive and shareable experience. She shared the designs of the bold Spotify Wrapped Instagram story that we know today. Ham is the reason it skyrocketed to popularity, yet she received no credit for her idea. She told Refinery29, “I’m hearing a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, that’s what you do. That’s how companies work’… It makes me question how people value creativity.” Her treatment has made the public rethink how corporations should treat young creative interns.
On a wider scale, Spotify Wrapped has heavily affected how consumers listen to music. Music used to be a personal activity that varied from person to person, but now it is a joint experience. The “sharing” aspect of Wrapped can make listeners feel self-conscious about their music taste. It can lead people to change who they listen to because they know they are being recorded. Apps like AirBuds, that track all of the music you listen to and share your stats with friends, only exaggerate this phenomenon. Both the sharing of music on social media and the rise of being ‘performative’ (a trend that states listening to certain music for attention) contribute to this change. Spotify Wrapped perfectly encapsulates how being observed influences our listening habits.
With reasons ranging from Spotify’s government influence and AI-use, to how they treat their workers, users are boycotting the company. The platform has a predominantly young audience, and they are realizing the power they hold. Users are beginning to switch from the platform to other apps like Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal. While it is hard to quantify the number, Forbes reports that around 715 million people have stopped using the app. These mass boycotts have garnered little to no attention from the company, but the path Spotify is going down is becoming harder to turn back on. 2025 may be one of the last Spotify Wrapped’s that the public cares about.