Spotify Wrapped has arrived! It’s time to dive into that little black-and-green square on your phone and discover what your music says about you. Are you the epitome of cool and understated, unabashedly basic, delightfully old-school, intriguingly weird, or daringly edgy? Your personality, it seems, is intricately woven into your musical preferences.

Every year, Spotify rolls out this eagerly anticipated feature, offering users a personalized rundown of their most-played artists, podcasts, songs, and genres of the year. These tailor-made lists don’t just reflect individual tastes—they become a social media sensation for 24 hours.

The sharing frenzy begins: some flaunt their eclectic music choices, while others humorously acknowledge their pop addiction. All in all, it’s a fun day: the anticipation of reactions on your social media, checking your crush’s stories to see what they’re into.

People have even created “guess whose list this is” trivia games. What used to be a private experience is now, like most everything, public, adding yet another facet to our carefully—or not so carefully—crafted online personalities.

However, there’s a less discussed, darker side to Spotify Wrapped. According to Vox Media, “while tracking music data doesn’t seem too murky at first glance, the use of artificial intelligence has been proven to discriminate. Reports have shown how artificial intelligence can be encoded with bias and perpetuate racism.

In another article reported by Vox Media, a study by “the Bank of England found that Spotify data can even reveal user moods… Spotify then capitalizes off that information by selling it to companies, to which demographic profiles are akin to gold.”

Now, I don’t mean to rock anyone’s festive musical boat here. But equipped with this information, look at your Spotify Wrapped critically this year. Ask some questions. Are we merely dancing to the tune of algorithms, boxed in by coded suggestions based on gender, age, and race? Are these algorithms stifling our musical exploration? And are we too comfortable letting machines define our identities?

But there’s more. Essence.com shed light on a concerning issue: the uncredited contributions to Spotify Wrapped. Jewel Ham, a Howard University alumna, tweeted in December 2020 to have devised the Spotify Wrapped concept as an intern project in 2019, yet she remains unrecognized. While it’s common for companies to own employee creations, should we not acknowledge individual contributions? Maybe, we, the users, could tag and thank Jewel in our stories this year? Let’s make #thankyouwhateverjewel a thing?

And last but not least. What about the artists themselves? How do they benefit from Spotify Wrapped? Spotify owes everything to the creators and yet…

Haulix Daily reports, “Another band, Dowsing, shared a message with their Spotify Wrapped statistics. The band wrote, “We are thankful for your streams. Buy the physical medium to support art. Buy directly from your favorite band’s label. There is no better way to help them climb out of artistic debt. When bands work with the right label and have less financial stress they can succeed.”

So, as we engage with Spotify Wrapped, let’s enrich the conversation. Challenge Spotify to credit creators like Jewel, inquire about fair compensation for artists, and question whom they’re selling our data to.

Remember, Spotify exists because of its users. You have the power. Make it count.