Like many people, I used to love Spotify Wrapped. It felt like a little reward at the end of the year—a fun way to reflect on all the music that soundtracked my life over the past 12 months. Wrapped was always accurate, always personal, and always something worth getting excited about (or embarrassed over, depending on the year).

But this year? Not so much.

Back in high school, I switched from Apple Music to Spotify specifically because of Wrapped. At the time, Apple had nothing like it, and I wanted to be part of the annual data-drop excitement. Transferring over 10,000 liked songs wasn’t easy, but I was convinced it would be worth it. And for a while, it was. But lately, it feels like Spotify has lost sight of what made Wrapped special in the first place.

Now, ironically, Apple Music’s Replay is doing it better.

This year’s Wrapped results had a lot of people wondering if Spotify even used real data. Social media has been flooded with complaints — users questioning why their top songs don’t make sense, why their stats feel off, and why their Wrapped barely changed from last year despite completely different listening habits.

And don’t even get me started on the genre labels. Every year, Spotify seems to get weirder with these, but 2024 might be the winner. People have been getting results with terms so random and niche they sound AI-generated (they are) — except not in a cool way, more in a this-makes-absolutely-no-sense way.

Spotify said May was my “Pink Pilates Princess Roller Skating Pop” moment. I think I played a Sabrina Carpenter song once — maybe that’s where that came from. August was my “Wild West American Football UK Drill.” Your guess is as good as mine. Yes, it is real. And yes, you’re right — the U.K. is not in America. My No. 1 artist is Lana Del Rey. It just doesn’t add up. I’m disappointed in you, AI.

Then there’s the new AI storytelling elements, which were supposed to make Wrapped more engaging but just ended up making it feel less personal. The Music Personality feature, for example, was meant to sum up listening habits, but a lot of people found their results generic or flat-out wrong. The Your Music Evolution feature, designed to show how music taste changed over time, didn’t have much depth. And the AI-generated podcast, narrated by “DJ X,” was an interesting idea in theory, but in reality, it felt awkward — like listening to a robot try to hype you up about music you already know you like.

Something about this year’s Wrapped also felt… off. More and more people are starting to feel like Spotify is using Wrapped to push certain artists and playlists instead of genuinely reflecting what people actually listened to.

Sure, it’s expected that the biggest names in music — Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Drake — will dominate the charts. But indie fans, in particular, have noticed that Wrapped seems to overemphasize songs from curated playlists, even if they only played them a handful of times. And it’s hard not to wonder: Is Spotify prioritizing certain artists because of deals with record labels? There’s no solid proof, but it wouldn’t be surprising, considering how streaming platforms operate.

Here’s the part that stings the most: Apple Music actually does a better job at this now.

Unlike Spotify Wrapped, which drops once a year, Replay updates in real time. Users can check their stats anytime, track listening trends, and get a breakdown of top albums and total listening hours. In other words, it provides everything people actually want from Wrapped — without the unnecessary AI fluff.

If Apple’s Replay had been this solid back when I made the switch, I probably wouldn’t have even left. But at this point, I’ve been on Spotify for years, and moving 10,000-plus liked songs again sounds like a nightmare. So for now, I stay.

Despite all the complaints, Wrapped will still take over social media every December. It’s too much of a tradition at this point. But if Spotify wants to keep users engaged long term, it needs to get back to what made Wrapped special in the first place: a clean, accurate, and personal reflection of the music that shaped our year.

Otherwise, next year might be the year I finally go through the hassle of transferring everything back to Apple Music.