An algorithmic event: the celebration and critique of Spotify Wrapped

Annabell, Taylor and Rasmussen, Nina (2025) An algorithmic event: the celebration and critique of Spotify Wrapped. New Media & Society. ISSN 1461-4448

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Abstract

As the year draws to a close, the marketing campaign ‘Spotify Wrapped’ invites users to share their personalised data story on social media. We draw on empirical insights from five creative workshops to examine how university students perceive and respond to the logics of this ‘algorithmic event’ and assertion of identity through ‘wrappification’. Our analysis identifies four themes: the resonance of Wrapped, limits of the Wrapped self, ambience of music and contestations of Spotify’s governance. These themes reflect the multifaceted emotions evoked in users, ranging from celebration of personalisation to critique of data capture. They also demonstrate contradictory views of classification systems. While our participants are deeply attuned to the algorithmic and commercial forces of streaming, their engagement with music often transcends the platform’s affordances. By examining these negotiated practices during an algorithmic event, our study extends debates on the platformisation of culture, especially regarding music’s aesthetic and functional values.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited:	16 Oct 2025 08:54
Last Modified:	04 Dec 2025 10:45
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/129812

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