Spotify already discovered success with its widespread AI DJ characteristic, and now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation. The corporate on Monday launched AI playlists into beta, a brand new choice that enables customers to generate a playlist primarily based on written prompts.
The characteristic will initially grow to be accessible to customers on Android and iOS units within the U.Okay. and Australia and shall be iterated on within the months forward.
Along with extra commonplace playlist creation requests, like these primarily based on style or timeframe, Spotify’s use of AI means individuals might ask for a greater diversity 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 corporate notes that the very best playlists are generated utilizing prompts that comprise a mixture of genres, moods, artists and a long time, nevertheless.
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 consequence by issuing instructions like “much less upbeat” or “extra pop,” for instance. Customers can even swipe left on any songs to take away them from the playlist.
When it comes to the expertise, Spotify says it’s utilizing giant language fashions (LLMs) to know the person’s intent. Then, Spotify makes use of its personalization expertise — the data it has in regards to the listener’s historical past and preferences — to meet the immediate and create a customized AI-generated playlist for the person.
The corporate 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 creating AI playlists, when reverse engineers Chris Messina and Alessandro Paluzzi shared screenshots of code from Spotify’s app that referred to AI playlists that have been “primarily based in your prompts.”
Spotify on the time declined to touch upon the discovering, saying it might not provide an announcement on attainable new options. Nonetheless, in December 2023, the corporate confirmed that it was testing AI-driven playlist creation after a TikTok video of the characteristic surfaced displaying what the Spotify person 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 high proper of the display screen. A pop-up menu seems displaying the AI Playlist as a brand new choice alongside the prevailing “Playlist” and “Mix” choices.
If a listener can’t consider any prompts to strive, Spotify presents immediate options to assist individuals get began, like “get centered at work with instrumental electronica,” “fill within the silence with background café music,” “get pumped up with enjoyable, upbeat, and optimistic songs” or “discover a distinct segment style like Witch Home” and plenty of others.
To save lots of an AI playlist, faucet the “Create” button so as to add it to the library.
The corporate notes the AI has guardrails round it so it won’t reply to offensive prompts or these centered on present occasions or particular manufacturers.
Spotify has been investing in AI expertise to enhance its streaming service for a lot of months. With the launch of AI DJ, which expanded globally final 12 months, the corporate used a mixture of Sonantic and OpenAI expertise to create a synthetic model of the voice of Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan, who introduces personalised track choices to the person. Final 12 months, Spotify stated it was investing in in-house analysis to higher perceive the newest in AI and enormous language fashions.
CEO Daniel Ek has additionally teased to traders different methods Spotify might leverage AI, together with by summarizing podcasts, creating AI-generated audio advertisements, and extra. The corporate has additionally seemed into utilizing AI tech that may clone a podcast host’s voice for host-read advertisements.
Forward of AI playlists, Spotify launched the same characteristic, Area of interest Mixes, that allowed customers to create personalised playlists utilizing prompts, however the product didn’t leverage AI expertise and was extra restricted when it comes to its language understanding.