Kale Miller’s Post

🎶 Spotify Wrapped 2024: When AI Misses the Beat 🎶 I always look forward to Spotify Wrapped—it’s such a fun —and sometimes cruel— way to rethink my year through its soundtracks. But this year’s edition felt… off. It didn’t deliver the magic, creativity seemed lacking, and some of my most-looped songs didn’t even show up! 😅 Here’s the kicker: it’s making waves across platforms because it seems Spotify’s massive layoffs last year (1,500 employees) were part of a shift toward integrating AI more deeply into features like Wrapped. What’s interesting is how users are responding. Many are turning to tools like Last.fm or Obscurify for deeper, more reliable insights into their listening habits. If AI can’t deliver the personalization users expect, they’ll find alternatives that do ✨ 🤔 As a PM, it’s a huge lesson: technology alone isn’t enough. AI should enhance creativity, not replace it, and the user experience has to come first. What do you think? Did Wrapped meet your expectations, or are you exploring other tools too? Let’s chat below! 👇

We've seen a lot of companies announce layoffs over the last few years, but what hasn't been as clear as the impact to the customer experience from all these layoffs. Until today. Spotify released it's Wrapped 2024 and customers were left feeling meh about the insights and how Spotify packaged up the data. Some customers are attributing the lackluster experience to the layoffs that the company went through, as well as how the organization has been using AI. The takeaway: layoffs may save the organization in the short term, but it's worth considering the longer term impact on the products, and the customer experience. And while AI can save money and time, there's a general fatigue starting to emerge about AI everything. As some of the memes indicate, perhaps Spotify should back off the AI usage and go back to ensuring humans are in the room participating in the design decisions. What are your thoughts on your Spotify Wrapped?

Just because it won’t be a line in the P&L doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.. Kudos to Daniel Ek for admitting this, but I will say- in my experience at multiple companies >45k employees…layoffs always disrupt operations because the people were actually doing work AND the psychological impact to the folks who remain is underestimated. Bad performers exist everywhere, but I would argue that any layoff greater than 50 employees will always impact you more severely than you think. And only the severance or business wind down costs are recognized officially. Type II productivity- not a financial metric that will ever show up in your P&L. #layoffs

Heard the latest? Spotify's Wrapped flopped hard this year. My timeline is all about - "the layoffs really show here." 👀 But honestly, It's all about genuine team connections—way beyond the PowerPoint slides and "I'll send you the data by EOD" texts. Shared interests help, like my obsession with Pokémon Go updates or Anirudh Panda's questionable music choices. Not everyone's into it, but hey, that's TEAM BONDING. I can’t just fire someone because “AI can do your job.” We need to find what’s special about our team and nurture it. Sure, data is important—but it’s not everything. Team up with AI, make it your ‘chotu’ at work so we can scale. AI can tally my songs but can't grasp why that breakup track was on repeat 12 times at 2 AM (ouch). Human connection > Algorithm Maybe Spotify should've been all about 'catch 'em all' when it came to their creative crew.

A couple of month's ago I wrote about Spotify's layoffs on Medium. The focus of that article was the #futureofwork. Specifically, how companies lie Spotify are reducing overhead by eliminating "work around the work." Today I published a follow up to that article about how Spotify can pivot. Part of the future of work is also thinking about the future of business. Models that worked a few years ago won't work in the future. As the economy becomes increasingly native, we're going to have to start looking at new ways to capture value beyond revenue generation and profitability. Creator equity is one place to start. I don't know of a single platform that offers emerging talent greater distribution in exchange for creator equity. With platforms like Spotify already out there, this could be an easy way to increase their value while foster the next generation of talent. What do you think? If you were just getting started today, would you trade equity for distribution? P.S. You can read my full take here: https://lnkd.in/d8yfMWx4

🎵 Spotify Hits New Record in Quarterly Revenue, but at What Cost? Spotify just announced a robust 20% YoY revenue increase, reaching €3.64 billion this quarter. This surge is partly due to significant cost-cutting measures, including widespread layoffs. However, this financial success story comes with its complexities, especially for the creators who are the backbone of the platform. In a recent shift, Spotify has introduced stringent royalty rules: a track must now garner at least 1,000 streams over a 12-month period and achieve a certain number of unique listeners to qualify for royalties. This new policy raises a critical question: Has reducing monetisation for smaller artists, who make up 80% of Spotify's creators, contributed to these record profits? Despite boasting a massive monthly active user base of 631 million, Spotify's support for small creators seems to be waning. As the platform grows, it appears increasingly challenging for these artists to benefit from the same system that boasts such significant corporate gains. 💡 What are your thoughts on this dynamic? Can platforms like Spotify do more to ensure all creators benefit from their growth, not just the top tier? #Spotify #MusicIndustry #CreatorsRights #CorporateProfitability

After a long, agonising wait, 2024’s Spotify Wrapped was finally released last week… & the reaction was not good! 👀 Wrapped has become a popular yearly tradition on social media, giving listeners the opportunity to share their sophisticated (or cringy) music taste with their friends, family & strangers online. It was known for its unique visual style, one that really stood out in social media feeds. It was imaginative, colourful & reflected the creativity of the artists that people were listening to 🎧 But this year, not so much. Spotify seems to have taken a step too far with AI, turning Wrapped 2024 into a lacklustre, data-driven version void of any of the personality & creativity that made it special. There were no kookie personality assessments, no Sound Towns & no music aura readings. & from the backlash it’s clear that data alone is never enough. What people want is the human touch, the quirks & eccentricities. The story behind the numbers. Is there a link between this year’s Wrapped & Spotify’s recent layoffs? Maybe. While the CEO admits the 1,500 layoffs at once were a mistake, it’s clear that the product has suffered as a result. This year, AI has been shoved into every corner of the creative industries & the machine’s fingerprints (or lack thereof) are everywhere. Spotify is just the latest culprit. I recently posted about the outcry from the AI-generated Coca Cola Christmas advert, highlighting the reason Santa’s workshop is depicted as a place where toys are crafted by hand, because that’s where the magic happens! I think Spotify learned a hard lesson with this year’s Wrapped… if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! What do you think about this year’s Wrapped, let me know your thoughts in the comments 👇 #SpotifyWrapped #AI

Here's how Spotify measures the ROI of Backstage, a platform we proudly help implement for our clients. This insightful piece reveals the significant impact of Backstage on developer activity, efficiency, and satisfaction. It's a testament to how the right tools can revolutionize the development lifecycle and enhance team productivity. A must-read for anyone interested in elevating their tech operations! #AvaliaSystems #Backstage #DeveloperPortal

🔹 Spotify #CEO Daniel EK is struggling with the repercussions of laying off over 1,500 employees at Spotify...was there a better option as a solution? 🔷 If you are seeking ways to prevent #layoffs and all the risk factors associated with reducing #headcount, look to #AIQ for #techspend #optimization as a patented end-to-end solution. We provide a free high-level analysis for companies interested: 🆓 https://lnkd.in/gSZyezaJ ☑ AIQ creates a competitive market environment among an enterprise's tech suppliers that drives down costs and optimizes contracts WITHOUT resorting to layoffs or headcount reductions. #CIO #CFO #EBITDA #costoptimization #costefficiency #revenuegrowth #EV #informationtechnology #Csuite

Your Spotify subscription is going up. If you're like me, you probably got an email this morning letting you know that your monthly premium subscription rate is going up to $11.99 per month. Idk about you but I'm kind of getting tired of paying for Spotify. It's not because I don't like the platform, I just don't know what I'm paying for anymore. All of the podcasts I listen to have ads. Adding music to playlists is clunky. Maybe it's me, but I haven't found a good way to save content to listen to later. And I probably cycle through the same three genres of music each week with little to no help from DJ. It begs the question: what am I paying for? Back in March, I wrote about how Spotify could change its business model. A lot of users champion Spotify for amplifying new artists, but if Spotify isn't building a business model to help distribute those artists, it doesn't matter. You and I will continue listening to the same stuff in an echo chamber as talented artists struggle to break through. If users aren't getting a quality service for their subscription and artists aren't being distributed much less compensated, then what's the point? I'd love to know what you think and what you're experience of Spotify has been like? P.S. you can read my thoughts on how Spotify could revamp its business model here: https://lnkd.in/gaca5MBZ