Spotify was one of the first music streaming platforms to adopt generative AI, and now the company is taking it to the next level with the launch of AI-powered playlists. Currently in beta phase, Spotify’s AI-powered playlists feature allows premium users to create a personalized playlist through text messages.
Now, Spotify Premium users can use text prompts or phrases like “songs to serenade my cat” or “beats to fight a zombie apocalypse”. They can also include emojis, colors, movie character names, and much more to get music recommendations. Based on these cues, Spotify will recommend music that matches the artist, genre, mood, or all of the above.
To use this new functionality, users must go to the AI playlist generator by entering “Your Library” and clicking the “+” button at the top right of the page. The obtained results can be modified with new prompts until the user is satisfied with the playlist, at which point they can save it by clicking “create” at the top right.
The function does have some limitations; AI playlists will not produce results for messages unrelated to music, such as current events or specific brands, and there are “measures in place regarding offensive messages”, for example.
Spotify uses data from a large language model (LLM) to understand user intentions and offer them music that suits their mood and tastes. The company introduced an AI feature called DJ a year ago, which provides a personalized selection of music, and even spoken comments.
Available on Android and iOS, the AI-powered playlist feature on Spotify is currently limited to the United Kingdom and Australia, but will soon be expanded to more markets.
