Spotify Wrapped: Should we be boycotting Spotify and what are the other options?

Every year, millions of people eagerly anticipate one of the most personal yet public data dumps of the year: their Spotify Wrapped. But this year the excitement has been soured by a growing concern for the ethics of the company.

Recently, Spotify has been facing significant backlash leading to calls for a boycott from both users and artists. The main reasons for this boycott stem from concerns about the platform's payment model for artists, issues with lay offs related to artificial intelligence and shortcomings of the app.

One of the primary reasons for the boycott is Spotify's payment system which many artists say is unfair. The streaming giant pays artists based on the number of streams their music receives but these payments per stream are very low.

Independent artists in particular, have spoken out about struggling to earn enough from their music to make a living. The system tends to favour well-known artists with massive streams, leaving smaller musicians with little financial support.

This has led some to argue that Spotify is more focused on its profits than fairly compensating the creators who make the platform successful.

A new rule for Spotify in 2024 means that if you do not get a certain number of streams annually, the company will redistribute the money made from these songs and reallocate it to bigger artists on the platform. This has left smaller musicians angry, saying that the company cares more about money than the artists.

Alayna Kaelyn is a small independent artist that uploads her music to Spotify. In a video posted to TikTok she explained that despite appreciating the sentiment, boycotting the platform could do even further harm to smaller artists like herself.

She explains that though Spotify have announced that they will stop paying royalties for artists that receive under 1000 streams for their song throughout the year, this threshold is incredibly low at around three dollars per annum.

She says that this kind of money will not be the difference in artists being able to pay the bills.

Alayna expands on this, saying that many distributors who work with artists to upload their content onto Spotify have a minimum threshold for cashing out. Therefore artists that receive these low numbers of streams often do not receive the money themselves and instead it sits in the accounts of these streaming sites.

She said that it makes sense that the money that used to go into this pool of unpaid songs will now be redistributed to the rest of the artists on Spotify. She says: “Frankly in this day and age artists do not expect to make money off of streaming anyway - that is a whole other conversation - but stopping Spotify is not the answer.

“The best thing you can do to support your favourite artists is to buy their merchandise, visit their shows and buy physical copies of their music.”

Spotify also came under recent backlash for their decision to lay off of 17% of their workforce and replace them with AI. This decision was part of its efforts to reduce costs and improve profitability but has sparked backlash from critics who point to broader industry trends and Spotify’s reliance on AI. The layoffs followed rising operational costs and slower revenue growth​.

Along with the job cuts, Spotify has increasingly turned to artificial intelligence to enhance its platform. The company is investing in AI to streamline content recommendations, improve personalised playlists and optimise its podcast features.

CEO Daniel Ek justified the cuts by emphasising a need for greater operational efficiency and claimed the company's workforce had grown too large during the pandemic. Many avid app users have even gone as far as to blame the delayed launch date of Spotify Wrapped on these redundancies.

One TikTok user said: “I’m assuming Spotify thought they could use AI to replace all the people they laid off - they were wrong.”

Another said: “I think it’s delayed because they tried to make the whole thing with AI and are now furiously struggling t make it usable this week.”

There is also growing concern for the quality of Spotify music. Apple music users who have recently switched have posted to social media saying that they have ‘heard sounds they never knew existed’ whilst listening on Spotify. This is alongside growing frustration with users inability to effectively shuffle songs on their playlists. Instead, Spotify uses its own algorithm to predict the songs that should play next- even on shuffle mode.

While Spotify continues to dominate the music streaming world, a wave of alternatives are close behind, offering to outdo its shortcomings. Apple Music tempts listeners with crystal-clear sound quality including lossless audio and Dolby Atmos, all while paying artists more per stream.

Tidal also positions itself as the ethical audiophile’s choice, offering HiFi streaming and a Fan-Centered Royalties system that ensures subscription fees go directly to the artist.

YouTube Music blends traditional streaming with a range of live performances and user-generated content, giving fans access to much more than just studio recordings.

And then of course there’s Deezer, often overlooked but quietly delivering a highly personalised listening experience through features like Flow, alongside high-definition audio options.

Each platform offers a unique spin on music streaming, making them viable contenders.

Despite this, Spotify remains one of the largest and most popular music streaming services globally, and it’s unclear whether the boycott will have a significant impact on the company’s profits or business practices.