For years, the narrative has been that Spotify Wrapped, which offers a look back at your music listening habits for the year, has left Apple Music members longing for a similar experience. Apple Music, on the other hand, has been developing its Replay feature for a considerable time. Each December, vocal Apple Music subscribers have found themselves envious of Spotify Wrapped.

Uncover the Battle Between Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay

Best Replay yet

This year, Apple Music Replay for 2024 stands out as the best version yet. Apple has finally addressed the major complaint about its version of Wrapped – it used to take users out of the Music app and onto the web, requiring them to sign in. While this is still the case in some instances like on the Mac and Vision Pro, the Music app on iPhone and iPad now presents the full Replay experience without the need to leave the app.The Replay feature is truly remarkable this year. Insights such as being in the top 100 or 1000 listeners for an artist or having specific listening minutes per artist and song make it a data-driven and fascinating exploration of your listening habits. Apple has also designed Replay to be highly shareable, with an Instagram Stories-like presentation and sharable images and a short video for posting on social media.Moreover, Apple has Replay playlists that continuously update as the year progresses. However, it is the full Replay recap that truly holds the magic.

AI Wrapped slop?

In the Spotify world, the originators of the idea are facing a lot of negative feedback from disappointed users this year. Sarah Perez at TechCrunch has gathered a sample of the underwhelmed and disappointed.The main complaints are that Spotify prioritized the inclusion of an AI podcast for Wrapped over other clever and creative data stories it usually offers. These include identifying your music personality, matching you to a town with similar musical tastes, describing your “audio aura,” or turning your listening history into a game to share with friends. Others are upset about the lack of more detailed stats and the exclusion of information they have come to expect, such as top music genres and top podcasts. Spotify declined to clarify how they decided which features to include.On X, many people are sharing their feedback along with the #SpotifyWrapped2024 hashtag, describing this year's annual review of their listening history as “boring,” a “flop,” “underwhelming,” and a “disappointment.” Although people are still sharing screenshots of their Wrapped, a scroll through the hashtag currently shows more complaints than praises.The AI podcast, powered by Google's Notebook LM tool, is a creative way to introduce the tool to Spotify users. Personally, I have enjoyed experimenting with Notebook LM and found the AI-powered podcast it creates to be quite impressive. However, it seems to have had a negative impact on Spotify listeners.What do you think? Have you noticed Apple Music Replay getting better or Spotify Wrapped getting worse? As an Apple Music member since it was called Beats Music, I have always found Spotify's user experience unappealing. But we are curious to hear your thoughts. Has Apple surpassed where Spotify has fallen behind?Gift idea options for iPhone users and Apple fans:Follow Zac: X, Bluesky, Instagram / Shop Apple on Amazon to support my workFTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.