Spotify launches personalized AI playlists you can create using commands.
Spotify has already found success with popular AI DJ , and now the streaming music service is bringing artificial intelligence to playlist creation. The company on Monday introduced AI Playlists in beta, a new option that lets users create a playlist based on written instructions.
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The feature will initially be available to Android and iOS device users in the UK and Australia and will be improved over the coming months.
In addition to more typical playlist requests, such as those based on genre or time frame, Spotify’s use of AI means people could ask for a wider variety of custom playlists, such as “songs to sing to my cat” or “beats to get through a zombie apocalypse,” Spotify suggests. The requests can refer to all sorts of things, such as places, animals, activities, movie characters, colors, or emojis. The company notes that the best playlists are created using requests that take a combined approach of genres, moods, artists, and decades, however.
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Spotify also uses its understanding of users' tastes to customize the playlists it creates with the feature.
After creating the playlist, users can use AI technology to review and refine the final result by issuing commands like “less rhythmic” or “more pop,” for example. Users can also swipe left on any song to remove it from the playlist.
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In terms of technology, Spotify says it uses LLMs, large-scale language models , to understand the user's intent. Spotify then uses its personalization technology — the information it has about the listener's history and preferences — to fulfill the instruction and create a personalized AI-generated playlist for the user.
The company uses a range of third-party tools for its AI and machine learning experiences.
TechCrunch first reported in October 2023 that Spotify was developing AI playlists, when respective development engineers Chris Messina and Alessandro Paluzzi shared code snippets from Spotify's app that referred to AI playlists that were "based on your instructions.
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Spotify declined to comment on the finding at the time, saying it would not offer a statement on potential new features. However, in December 2023, the company confirmed that it was testing playlist creation using AI after a TikTok video of a Spotify user dubbed “Spotify’s ChatGPT”.
The feature is found in the “Your Library” tab in the Spotify app and by tapping the plus (+) button in the top-right corner of the screen. A pop-up menu appears showing AI Playlist as a new option next to the existing “Playlist” and “Shuffle” options
If a listener can't think of any guidelines to try, Spotify offers suggested guidelines to help people get started, such as "focus on work with electronic music tools," "fill the silence with coffee shop music in the background," "get inspired with fun, upbeat, and positive songs," or "explore a specific genre like Witch House," and more.
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To save an AI playlist, tap the “Create” button to add it to the library.
The company notes that the AI has safeguards around it, so it won't respond to offensive instructions or those focused on current news or specific brands.
Spotify has been investing in AI technology to improve its streaming experience for months. With the launch of AI DJ, which went global last year, the company used a combination of Sonantic and OpenAI to create an artificial version of Spotify’s head of corporate culture, Xavier “X” Jernigan, who presents personalized music selections to the user. Last year, Spotify said it was investing in internal research to better understand the latest in big language and AI models.
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CEO Daniel Ek has also warned investors about other ways Spotify could leverage AI , including podcast syndication , AI-generated ad audio, and more. The company has also looked into using AI technology that would clone a podcast host's voice for ads to be read by them.
Before AI playlists, Spotify launched a similar feature, Niche Mixes, that allowed users to create personalized playlists using instructions, but the product did not leverage AI technology and was more limited in terms of language understanding.
Source: techcrunch
