Spotify Wrapped 2024: Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter reign, but is it the algorithm’s fault?

Spotify has unveiled its annual Wrapped list, showcasing the most-streamed artists and songs of the year. As expected, the biggest names, including Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and The Weeknd, dominate the charts, reflecting the immense power of streaming platforms' algorithms and big data.

Sabrina Carpenter's track "Espresso" emerged as the most streamed song of 2024, amassing over one and a half billion streams. However, the overwhelming success of this song has sparked mixed reactions. While it enjoys massive popularity, it has been described as a "mildly somatizing sleeping pill" that lacks musical diversity. Similarly, Benson Boone’s "Beautiful Things" and Billie Eilish's "Birds of a Feather" also landed high on the charts, further highlighting the trend of familiar, soft pop hits filling the top spots. Other names like Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Coldplay also made appearances, but it was clear that global streaming success was dominated by a few select artists.

This year’s Wrapped playlist, featuring the top 50 global songs, reveals a notable trend: the sounds start to blur together, with many tracks following a similar formula. The article suggests that algorithms and big data play a significant role in shaping this trend, as Spotify recommends more of the same music based on user behavior, limiting the diversity of discoveries.