Explained: Dizzying popularity of Spotify Wrapped, and why it has set off criticism

Spotify began rolling out Wrapped on Wednesday (December 3). Launched in 2016 as a marketing campaign, Wrapped provides users with a compilation of data about their activity on the platform over the preceding year, and invites them to share a colourful pictorial representation of it on social media.

The campaign has been wildly successful: Wrapped’s release has historically correlated with a boost to Spotify’s app store rankings. “It’s a masterclass on fan advocacy,” Guillaume Huin, social media director of McDonald’s, had told Adweek in 2021.

But the campaign also has its critics, who raise data privacy concerns and how Spotify’s algorithm itself shapes users’ listening habits. Users have also pointed out how Spotify has historically mistreated artists. As one 2021 opinion piece on The Guardian said, Wrapped is “little more than free advertising for a company that… has [been widely] condemned for not extending a fair share of its profits and power to artists”.