If artists pay the ~$250+ fee to promote their music (based on the last time I checked), and then only make $50 for streaming their music 100k times, it's a heist plain and simply. If at the end of the year artists then publicize that they've had 100k streams, but in reality they only made $50 after spending $250 to get there then Spotify wrapped is quite possibly just a branding scheme to drive up their "under the table" annual ad revenue, and it encourages the platform to hold back non-ad-buying artists (in numerous ways) to encourage them to buy ad/promo/boost/playlist services.

This is the honest truth after my research over 3 years. There are several far more rewarding platforms out there that don't deal in phony merit badges, and that don't artificially bend reality to serve their profit records and shareholders first.