Spotify Wrapped Animated An annual recap of your listening habits—all at once Dear And abuse-It's back again. But in 2024, a brand new audio add-on will be created with attractive visuals artificial intelligence,
starting today, spotify Users will now have the chance to listen to their annual reports in the form of a personalized, AI-powered podcast, in which two synthetic hosts enthusiastically discuss the user's most-played tracks and favorite artists.
The new Podcast Recap is powered by Google's NotebookLM. If you have used Google's AI tools Create an audio podcast If you're researching a topic, the two AI-generated voices in the Wrapped podcast will sound familiar. The voices, which Spotify refers to as “AI hosts,” will engage in a brief conversation about you and your 2024 listening patterns. The feature will roll out in English in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Spotify's home country Sweden. And like Wrapped's long-running visual iteration, AI podcasts will be easily shareable.
The podcast is completely personalized. Both hosts address users by name and speak in the second person. In addition to providing you with concrete facts (like your top artists and the total minutes you spent listening), the hosts will analyze data collected by Spotify about you. They'll flatter you—they told me I'm a “tastemaker,” and called my musical tastes “so diverse” and “so unique.” They will present an overview of your lifestyle based on your listening habits. For example, he told me he could picture me strutting down the street in pink Pilates gear to Chappelle Rhone's “Red Wine Supernova,” and assumed I sang along. Rent Soundtrack during the shower. He expressed curiosity about my life, at one point wondering what I was doing on January 9, the day I listened to music for more minutes than any other day in 2024.
This isn't Spotify's first time incorporating AI-powered voices into the Wrapped experience. Last year, the platform's resident AI DJ, called DJ X, was included as a Wrapped add-on, providing commentary on users' 2023 listening habits. This year, Spotify expanded the feature to serve Spanish speakers, showing that the company sees a future in AI-generated audio.
This AI-enhanced version of Wrapped comes at a time when users are raising concerns about the monitoring of their behavior and massive data collection by Big Tech. Spotify in particular has faced criticism for rebranding precise tracking of user activity as a cozy and shareable holiday gift. Listeners have also been slow to adopt AI-generated podcasts, which typically feature charming virtual hosts who sound awkward while trying to sound human.