IT IS NOT A WRAP

THIS YEAR, I REJECT THE FLAWED FINDINGS OF MY 2024 SPOTIFY WRAPPED ROUNDUP AND VOW TO BE, DO, AND LISTEN BETTER. THE WORK STARTS NOW.

- INDRAN PARAMASIVAM

“HI, INDRAN PARAMASIVAM”, reads the first of the 14-part, Instastoryesque slideshow that is Wrapped, Spotify’s end-year, year-in-review assessment of its users’ disparate listening habits. By now, it is obvious that although it is addressed to me—and the millions of other paying and free-loading users who rely on the app as a music delivery system—and mentions me by my first and last names, Wrapped is as much a stroke of marketing genius that transcends virality—spreading across other apps and landing on social media with an atomic-sized radius—as it is a masterful merging of the imperatives of audience retention and identity delineation (i.e. self-broadcasting).

Also, it is flagrantly wrong and borderline defamatory about how my life in 2024 played out in song.

“Life moves fast” reads the second frame of the presentation in big, bold text before this miniaturised, fine-print announcement flashes across the screen: “Luckily, we took notes”. Well, Spotify, it does not seem like you did. In my experience, “notes” have always added detail and clarity to the bigger picture. In your case, however, it appears that I only listened to Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Drake. I really like those guys, but they do not speak for all of me.

Here is my roadmap to a better, more representative Wrapped for 2025.

No Exit