"More like industry plants and algorithm bait" — Internet reacts to Spotify unveiling its editors’ picks for the best songs of the year
On Monday, June 30, Spotify put out its editors' picks for the best songs of 2025 so far, containing 50 songs, chosen based on their musicality, songwriting, uniqueness, and cultural impact.
Sulinna Ong, the Head of Editorial at Spotify Global, claimed that the playlist was "shaped by real human editorial perspective". Ong also said,
"From the comeback of trip hop and dreamy indie-folk anthems to modern R&B staples, hard-hitting hip-hop, and genre-blending Latin tracks, each selection reflects the depth and range of the music that resonated with us."
The editors' picks were shared by @PopCrave in a tweet on Monday night, which has since gone viral, receiving over 308K views and 3.1K likes.
Netizens have reacted to it, with one of them commenting:
More like industry plants and algorithm bait.
Some netizens pointed out that most of the artists on the Spotify Editors' picks list were unfamiliar to them.
"Am I out of touch by barely knowing any of the artists or is Spotify secretly promoting their AI artists?" - questioned an X user.
"Most songs from khias I don’t know" - added another.
"Addison, Bad Bunny, Gaga and sombr carrying this list" - wrote a third netizen.
Others criticized the editors' taste in music, with one of them even calling 2025 one of the most boring music years.
"their editors have bad taste of music ngl" - replied a fourth netizen.
"this is lowkey one of the most boring music years" - posted a fifth one.
"Oh they spilled massively, especially with Gaga, Addison, Miley, Bad Bunny, Kehlani, Leon Thomas, sombr, The Marías, and Shake It To The Max!" - remarked a sixth user.
"Notice how nobody picked manchild cause it’s awful" - commented a seventh one.
Spotify upgrades its Discover Weekly playlist featured
Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist just turned 10 this month. To celebrate, Spotify updated the feature on June 30. Premium users will now see new genre controls at the top of their Discover Weekly playlist, allowing them to choose from up to five genres based on their listening history.
Inspired by their selections from these genres, premium users will also receive a fresh 30-track playlist every week. In addition to the new controls, the streaming service has also introduced a refreshed look to the playlist, with a more vibrant design that reflects its dynamic and ever-evolving nature.
Per Spotify, the Discover Weekly playlist, which was first launched in 2015 to introduce users to new music, has pushed songs that have surpassed over 100 billion streams on the platform. It has also led to more than 56 million new artist discoveries, boosting the emerging artists' drive by 77%.
On Monday, The Next Web reported that a new indie rock band called The Velvet Sundown is seemingly AI-generated, which has attracted over 4674,341 listeners on the platform within a month. Per the outlet, the band was flagged as potentially AI-generated by Reddit users. However, the streaming hasn't added any AI label to confirm the same.
