Spotify tests AI-powered playlists: What you need to know

“Oh, no, not AI-related news again!” Well, it is what it is, as the wise man once said.

Spotify is in the testing stage of a brand new feature that would allow users to build new playlists with the help of short, ChatGPT-like prompts. For example: “Fill the silence with background cafe music”, or “Get pumped up with fun, upbeat, positive songs”, or you could command Spotify to scramble a new playlist that’s more specific with “Explore a niche genre like Witch House”.

The AI feature is not yet rolled out to all to try; TechCrunch reports on it and while Spotify did confirm that they’re testing it, they didn’t share any further information about the technology and how it works, nor did it commit to a launch time frame.

There’s a TikTok video (by @robdad_) and albeit a short one – all in all, 11 seconds – it gives us a peek at what Spotify + AI could look like if this feature becomes available in the near future. On a side note: this could very well be limited to paid users, so don’t act surprised if you don’t get it on a free account.

What does it look like and what can it do?

“I just randomly discovered Spotify’s ChatGPT?”, says the video caption of the aforementioned TikTok. There’s a short preview in there, too – for the moment, the AI playlists feature is accessed from the “Your Library” tab in Spotify’s app by tapping on the plus (+) button at the top right of the screen. Here, a pop-up menu appears and the AI playlist feature is a new option underneath the existing “Playlist” and “Blend” options.

The feature’s description reads “Turn your ideas into playlists using AI” and notes that it’s currently only available in English.

What happens next will be very familiar to those who have used ChatGPT: a new chat-like window opens, waiting for your prompts and commands. There’s a list of suggested prompts, but users could ignore the menu and just type what they want to be mixed especially for them.

Next, there’s a “Processing your request…” message from Spotify’s AI and then the playlist itself is ready and you’re taken to a new screen where you can swipe left to remove any songs you don’t want to refine the playlist further.

YouTube Music also went AI, just not music-related

At the end of October 2023, YouTube Music rolled out a new AI playlist art generator feature. This experimental feature (for English language US users on YouTube Music) creates customized playlist art using generative AI.

Images of AI-generated pugs and turtles are nice, but maybe it’s time for YouTube Music to step up and catch up with Spotify…