It’s more than just an entertaining surprise. For some, it’s the eagerly anticipated highlight of their year.

“Spotify Wrapped is my favorite holiday. I was constantly refreshing the page for weeks, and I enjoyed seeing everybody else’s panic online waiting for Spotify Wrapped to come out,” said senior Ellie Chung Putaski.

For the last two weeks, endless posts have been uploaded to Instagram and TikTok, with users posting videos of refreshing Spotify daily and checking imaginary watches. This year also marked the longest wait in years for Spotify Wrapped, with the Dec. 4 release landing nearly a week after the late November releases of 2023 and 2022 and the Dec. 1 releases of 2021 and 2020.

But, said Chung Putaski, “the wait was worth it.” She found reviewing this year’s Wrapped both entertaining and affirming.

“I think it’s a pretty good representation [of my listening habits]. My music tastes have not changed at all. They are all the same songs and same artists. I think it’s interesting to see how your music taste has evolved, and how many different artists you’ve listened to, and…seeing how diverse it is,” said Chung Putaski.

Though she waits with bated breath annually, the results don’t change her listening habits at all – she knows what she likes and Wrapped is merely an exciting way of confirming her tastes, which she feels she’s very in touch with. Chung Putaski particularly enjoys the recorded messages that top listeners receive from artists and the sense of connection it gives her with the music she listens to.

Spotify Wrapped also appeals to casual listeners. Though tenth grader Meili Windorski describes themselves as not “the most invested” in Spotify Wrapped, they appreciate seeing the culmination of their annual music listening.

This year, K-pop overtook the other genres that Windorski usually sees on their Wrapped, dominating their top artist section, which surprised them. “Only a fraction of my music listening is reflected in my Wrapped. I often use different methods of playing my music, including YouTube and a CD player, so those songs aren’t accounted for,” said Windorski.

However, this year’s Wrapped did not go without criticism. Unlike previous iterations of Spotify Wrapped, Spotify did not tell users their top genres of 2024, a feature that competitors Apple Music and YouTube Music had. Spotify Wrapped also did not tell users their top album, contrasting with Apple Music’s Replay, which ranks users’ five most-played albums of the year.

But students highlighted more personal and technological drawbacks of Wrapped as their primary qualms.

Chung Putaski, as a songwriter herself who releases original music and covers on Instagram, wishes that Wrapped had a way to highlight small artists. “I think it could be cool if they had a like section on the Wrapped, like some new, up-and-coming artists you’ve listened to, or some smaller artists if you come across any of their songs, because sometimes you’ll hear a song you won’t notice, that a person just started posting because they’re so small.”

Meanwhile, it was Spotify’s introduction of more AI-based features and intense marketing that felt disappointing to junior Zahra Weidmann, who is an avid Spotify user. “I think my Wrapped this year wasn’t quite as good as last year….the addition of the AI features felt sort of odd. Also, the extra emphasis on the Wrapped feature felt forced – there’s now a separate tab for it on the app interface and it just feels like a bit much,” said Wiedmann.

A special feature of last year’s Wrapped was Me In 2023, which assigned listeners a character specific to their tastes in the style of tarot cards. Wrapped’s new feature is Your Musical Evolution, which describes monthly listening habits in a string of more-or-less related words that Spotify says “uniquely defined your year.”

“I liked last years’ [Wrapped] better. The Musical Evolution felt sort of clunky. It only gave me three different units, starting last January. All in all, it felt sort of rushed and wasn’t as cool as last year’s,” said Wiedmann.

Beyond the information presented on the screen, there’s a personal element to the statistics presented in pops of green and fuchsia – Spotify’s impact on the habits of listeners, which Windorski was surprised to be affected by this year. Though they find Spotify Wrapped enjoyable to watch, it also has them second-guessing their listening habits. “It’s only more after the fact [the release] that I may have some regrets or begin to hyper-analyze my past decisions…this year, my top artist changed, and I was hoping it didn’t. The artist I was hoping would come in first came in second and I don’t know why that made me feel disappointed in myself,” they said.

Despite Wrapped’s flaws, listeners still crave the personalized cultural report card of their year in streaming to save and share with friends. Chung Putaski can’t imagine a better way to end her year. “Spotify Wrapped is everything. It’s everything. It’s majestic, ethereal. I ascend every time I watch Spotify Wrapped. I ascend to a higher plane of existence.”

Want to listen to the year in recap? View Spotify Wrapped when logged into Spotify.