Is Spotify losing the streaming war as it faces boycotts, lawsuits, and various controversies?
The end of November meant something.
It wasn’t just that the holiday season was just a few weeks away, or that Black Friday shopping madness was imminent, but that something fun and exciting was about to happen at any moment: Spotify Wrapped.
The annual roundup of users’ personal listening data from audio streaming platforms was first launched in 2015 – at the time, it was referred to as “The Year in Music” – and became an online fixture in the mid-to-late 2010s.
Like clockwork, social media platforms like Instagram and X will be filled with graphics showing the listening tastes of Spotify users over the past year. The feature became so popular that competing platforms, including Apple Music, began releasing their own versions with much less fanfare in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
But this year, the Internet is unnaturally quiet during the period when Spotify Wrapped usually appears. The lack of anticipation comes during a challenging time for the streaming platform, as it faces backlash over issues like artist compensation, AI-generated music, and ICE recruitment ads.
Controversies will increase in 2025
Over the past decade, what has really set Spotify Wrapped apart are its year-by-year unique features that summarize a user’s music activity in the form of fun visualizations like colorful auras and cities. These features regularly go viral, creating memes that last for weeks.
Statistics showing things like the amount of minutes listened to, the number of unique songs played, or the top percentage of a particular artist’s fans have become a point of pride. Plus, the Top Songs and Top Albums lists bring a sense of nostalgia, creating a soundtrack to important memories from the past year.
But the controversies of 2025 have taken a huge toll on the streaming service.
First, the artist receives compensation. Spotify has long been criticized for disappointing payments to artists. Earlier this year, some Grammy-nominated songwriters also Spotify boycotted the awards ceremony In response to the company’s decision to reduce royalty rates for songwriters and publishers. Merging its premium music service with audiobooks Last year.
Then there was an uproar around Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek Invest in HellsingA German defense company. When news broke that the CEO was funding an AI military tech company through his investment firm Prima Materia, indie artists like Massive Attack, Deerhoof and Godspeed You! black emperor pulled their music off the stage In protest during the summer.
In late September, one announced that it would CEO is stepping down While being the acting president.
When it comes to artificial intelligence in music, Users also feel Spotify is falling shortLast summer, Velvet Sundown, an AI-generated bandMade headlines globally for receiving over one million streams on Spotify in just a few weeks. The company doesn’t label AI-generated music, but labels it announced in september It is working towards strengthening AI protections for artists, including AI disclosures.
Toronto-based culture writer Richie Asali said the last 12 months have been a real tipping point for his relationship with Spotify, citing both the “slow adoption of AI on the streaming service” and the choice of smaller indie artists to leave the streaming giant in response to the Hellsing investment of a single.
“It’s a very small thing for us to change streaming platforms, to go to Apple or Tidal. But for artists to really put their necks out there like this… it’s a really big decision,” he said.
“I think if you’re a true music fan, you have to take your cues from artists that you listen to and respect… I think this is the beginning of a change, and I’m hopeful.”
Hip-hop legends Mastermind and Jay Smooth join Elamin to discuss rap’s brief Billboard chart slip and why artists still invest in streaming while radio pays much more than Spotify.
‘The shine has really gone bad’
There have also been some high-profile lawsuits. Earlier this month, a class-action lawsuit was filed Accusing Spotify of accepting payments In exchange for promotions on Discovery Mode playlists – which aims to provide paid users with a personalized, curated playlist based on their actual music listening habits. A lawsuit was also filed against Spotify in early November Accused of making billions of fraudulent streams using botsFor the benefit of artists like Drake.
However, the last straw for some users has been the controversial decision To run recruitment advertisements For US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has come under criticism this year for raiding workplaces and other locations in the US and arresting migrants. Since ads appeared on Spotify for free users in October, there have been calls to boycott the platform, with some paying users sharing online that they have opted to cancel their subscriptions on principle.
As the Spotify wrapped season began, Asali said that “the shine has really worn off.”
He said, “I think real music fans have found better ways to share their musical tastes than relying on this big company.”
Toronto music journalist Emily Hanskamp said she was “seeing boycotts at a rate we’ve never seen before.”
“The idea of ​​this platform was always meant to be a way to discover and share music from the indie level up,” he said. “And now we’re increasingly realizing that’s not the case and in fact in many cases, it works against most artists.”
Hanskamp cites Liz Pelly’s book mood machineWhich was released earlier this year with the conversation coming to the fore.
“I think this year we’re seeing the discussion become more public,” he said. “I think that book … comes at exactly the right time, where consumers are now having to face the reality of the platforms and technologies that they’re using.”
Hanskamp said he thinks the lack of buzz about Spotify Wrapped this year will continue even after it ends, as more people choose not to connect with the platform in the wake of its controversies.
He said, “Ethics are now woven into the fandom… There’s an opportunity to admit ignorance, but now artists and industry insiders are actually implicating fans and average everyday consumers in a way we haven’t before, because the situation has become so dire.”
“So now you can’t really close your eyes and ears and say, ‘This is my Spotify wrapped,’ without knowing what it says about you as a fan.”
