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K-Pop Fans Get #SpotifyCorrupt Trending a Day After Wrapped Feature Drops

December 02, 2022

The release of Spotify Wrapped is one of the most entertaining, highly anticipated days online, with Spotify listeners flocking to Twitter and Instagram to share screenshots of their music streaming habits. The interactive graphics launch memes about how groups like Taylor Swift fans, people with depression, or members of the LGBTQ community consume music, and #SpotifyWrapped is still trending a day after 2022’s drop.

Pretending to be shocked when I open my Spotify Wrapped and see my top artist pic.twitter.com/v4W5vAKEIt

— Erin is in her Eras era (@swiftbunnies) November 29, 2022

This year, YouTube Music provided users with their unique listening statistics, #YouTubeMusicRecap, the same day that Spotify dropped their now-iconic feature. The streaming services are similar, offering free, ad-supported versions and premium subscriptions. Last year, both YouTube Music and Apple Music rolled out recap features to compete with #SpotifyWrapped, prompting jokes about the differences among the services.

apple music users sharing their ‘replay’ when spotify wrapped is out pic.twitter.com/heyaaQzKqV

— mariano (@oscos) November 30, 2022

As #SpotifyWrapped maintains its hold on social media, the competing hashtag #SpotifyCorrupt has begun trending alongside it. The hashtag doesn’t seem to refer to the streaming giant’s well-documented practice of paying pittance in royalties to artists—instead, it’s being championed by K-Pop fans.

#SpotifyCorrupt if we are going to remove the streams of collabs from every artist, it should be J-hope who is the most streamed k-pop soloist

But Spotify didn't remove the streams of Lisa's collabs, just so she could be #1

Like the blatant favouritism and sabotage here… pic.twitter.com/AqP1KoBq6h

— Noah ⁷ Layo(V)er (@abyssofpeace) December 1, 2022

Devotees of BTS member J-Hope are angry with Spotify for counting streams of collaborations between artists as part of an individual artist’s statistics. They claim that the decision inflated the ranking of fellow BTS member Jungkook and lowered that of J-Hope. Jungkook collaborated with singer Charlie Puth this year for the song “Left and Right.”

Though the hashtag may seem like niche drama to people outside the K-Pop sphere, J-Hope fans have helped it rise on Twitter’s main trending page, and have even begun spamming the Instagram of Jérémy Erlich, Spotify’s vice president of music.

#SpotifyWrapped debuted in 2016.