Spotify already discovered success with its fashionable AI DJ characteristic, and now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation. The firm on Monday launched AI playlists into beta, a brand new possibility that enables customers to generate a playlist based mostly on written prompts.
The characteristic will initially develop into out there to customers on Android and iOS units within the U.Okay. and Australia and can be iterated on within the months forward.
In addition to extra customary playlist creation requests, like these based mostly on style or time-frame, Spotify’s use of AI means individuals may ask for a greater variety of customized playlists, like “songs to serenade my cat” or “beats to battle a zombie apocalypse,” Spotify suggests. Prompts can reference all types of issues, like locations, animals, actions, film characters, colours or emojis. The firm notes that the perfect playlists are generated utilizing prompts that comprise a mixture of genres, moods, artists and a long time, nonetheless.
Spotify additionally leverages its understanding of customers’ tastes to customise the playlists it makes with the characteristic.
After the playlist is generated, customers can then use the AI to revise and refine the top end result by issuing instructions like “less upbeat” or “more pop,” for instance. Users also can swipe left on any songs to take away them from the playlist.
In phrases of the know-how, Spotify says it’s utilizing giant language fashions (LLMs) to grasp the consumer’s intent. Then, Spotify makes use of its personalization know-how — the data it has in regards to the listener’s historical past and preferences — to meet the immediate and create a personalised AI-generated playlist for the consumer.
The firm makes use of a spread of third-party instruments for its AI and machine studying experiences.
TechCrunch first reported in October 2023 that Spotify was growing AI playlists, when reverse engineers Chris Messina and Alessandro Paluzzi shared screenshots of code from Spotify’s app that referred to AI playlists that had been “based on your prompts.”
Spotify on the time declined to touch upon the discovering, saying it could not provide an announcement on potential new options. However, in December 2023, the corporate confirmed that it was testing AI-driven playlist creation after a TikTookay video of the characteristic surfaced exhibiting what the Spotify consumer described as “Spotify’s ChatGPT.”
The characteristic is discovered within the “Your Library” tab in Spotify’s app by tapping on the plus button (+) on the prime proper of the display. A pop-up menu seems exhibiting the AI Playlist as a brand new possibility alongside the prevailing “Playlist” and “Blend” choices.
If a listener can’t consider any prompts to strive, Spotify provides immediate strategies to assist individuals get began, like “get focused at work with instrumental electronica,” “fill in the silence with background café music,” “get pumped up with fun, upbeat, and positive songs” or “explore a niche genre like Witch House” and lots of others.
To save an AI playlist, faucet the “Create” button so as to add it to the library.
The firm notes the AI has guardrails round it so it is not going to reply to offensive prompts or these targeted on present occasions or particular manufacturers.
Spotify has been investing in AI know-how to enhance its streaming service for a lot of months. With the launch of AI DJ, which expanded globally final yr, the corporate used a mixture of Sonantic and OpenAI know-how to create a man-made model of the voice of Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan, who introduces customized music picks to the consumer. Last yr, Spotify stated it was investing in in-house analysis to raised perceive the most recent in AI and enormous language fashions.
CEO Daniel Ek has additionally teased to traders different methods Spotify may leverage AI, together with by summarizing podcasts, creating AI-generated audio advertisements, and extra. The firm has additionally regarded into utilizing AI tech that may clone a podcast host’s voice for host-read advertisements.
Ahead of AI playlists, Spotify launched an identical characteristic, Niche Mixes, that allowed customers to create customized playlists utilizing prompts, however the product didn’t leverage AI know-how and was extra restricted when it comes to its language understanding.