As people walk to class, commute to work, and finish their daily tasks, you can observe just how many, if not most of them, will have earbuds or headphones on. Music has evolved to become an integral part of life. Portable music started with carrying around cassette tape players, then to keeping an iPod in your pocket. Now, all we have to do is click an app on our everyday devices. 📱
Social media trends have also revolved around snippets of music for a decade, starting with the Musical.ly boom in 2015 to today’s popular TikTok sounds — cue Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand” which plays in the background of the Jet2 advertisement. Many artists’ successful careers were also launched on TikTok, like Kali Uchi getting the spotlight from “TelepatĂa” going viral in 2020.
Music apps themselves have also evolved beyond being a simple platform for songs. Curating a playlist on music apps is something that users like to indulge in, whether that’s creating a 30 hour-long compilation of every song you like or a hyper-specific playlist that captures your exact mood. However, with the new AI-driven focus on apps like Spotify, the platforms seem to do all that work for you.
Take Spotify’s daylist for example. If you have never looked at your Spotify daylist or are not a Spotify user, the daylist is a playlist that is algorithmically generated 3 times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) that supposedly defines what your overall vibe is for that time of day based on your previous listening.
However, the titles of these daylists went viral for a period of time on social media because of their bizarre combination of words that the New York Times says “practically begs to be screencapped and posted”. Sometimes, the daylists seem to try too hard to go viral, using “brainrot” terms or making funny jabs at the user. To the right, is a real daylist I had gotten with the title: “rizz gyat monday afternoon”. 🤷
This hyper-personal analysis of a user’s listening via algorithms seem to be Spotify’s new focus. They have an AI-generated playlist for just about any type of mood you can search for. As seen to the left, when searching the word, “sad,” a dozen Spotify generated playlists pop up (“Crying Sad Mix”, “Soul Crushing Sad Mix”, “Lonely Sad Mix”, etc.).
These playlists are all based on users’ listening history. According to an article on geeksforgeeks.org, they use natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning models to analyze songs’ lyrics and textual content, along with the actual music’s tempo, key, and time signature. This deep analysis on users’ listening habits has made it easier than ever for them to find songs that they may resonate with. 🎼
By leveraging these in-depth AI systems, Spotify aims to stand out from other music streaming platforms, but does this hinder the creativity and authenticity of music? A huge criticism of Spotify’s use of AI came after their 2024 Spotify Wrapped released. Spotify Wrapped is an annual summary of users’ listening for the year, which first launched in 2016 and has been a staple that users look forward to seeing ever since.
Usually, Spotify Wrapped displays a user’s metrics like minutes of music streamed, most streamed artist, most streamed song, most streamed music genre. Each year would also create new, interesting features that felt personalized and fun to share with friends. For example, 2021’s included a user’s “audio aura,” 2022’s launched a message from a user’s top artist, and 2023’s revealed a tarot card-like character that defined a user’s listening.
However, unlike previous years, users were disappointed with 2024’s Spotify Wrapped, which substituted the fun Buzzfeed-like categorizations for an AI-generated “Music Evolution”. This was similar to the Spotify daylist, showcasing odd micro-genres that don’t make much sense. 🤔
https://x.com/kurtisconner/status/1864340810998640799
According to Forbes magazine, much of the backlash focused on the “over-reliance on AI and Spotify’s mass lay-offs for the lackluster presentation.” Users were also further bothered by Spotify creating a personalized AI-generated podcast based on users’ Spotify Wrapped. Spotify had already released an AI DJ feature in 2023, which is an AI voice that provides commentary about users’ music preferences and curates songs for them. Such AI-voice features are largely deemed unnecessary by the Spotify community and contributed more to the AI fatigue from the Spotify Wrapped.
Will companies like Spotify try to stay on the AI path, possibly creating better personalized user experiences? Or, will they scrap advancing features like the AI DJ and focus on connecting with the authenticity of musical artists and their fanbases? 🎤