Spotify already discovered success with its well-liked 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 possibility that enables customers to generate a playlist based mostly on written prompts.
The characteristic will initially turn out to be out there to customers on Android and iOS gadgets within the U.Ok. and Australia and shall be iterated on within the months forward.
Along with extra commonplace playlist creation requests, like these based mostly on style or time-frame, Spotify’s use of AI means folks might 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 corporate notes that the most effective 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 tip consequence by issuing instructions like “much less upbeat” or “extra pop,” for instance. Customers may also 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 grasp the person’s intent. Then, Spotify makes use of its personalization expertise — the knowledge it has concerning the listener’s historical past and preferences — to satisfy 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 had been “based mostly in your prompts.”
Spotify on the time declined to touch upon the discovering, saying it might not provide an announcement on doable new options. Nevertheless, 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. A pop-up menu seems displaying the AI Playlist as a brand new possibility alongside the prevailing “Playlist” and “Mix” choices.
If a listener can’t consider any prompts to attempt, Spotify provides immediate solutions to assist folks 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 constructive songs” or “discover a distinct segment style like Witch Home” and lots 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 man-made model of the voice of Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan, who introduces customized track picks to the person. Final 12 months, Spotify stated it was investing in in-house analysis to raised perceive the most recent in AI and huge 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 adverts, and extra. The corporate has additionally regarded into utilizing AI tech that will clone a podcast host’s voice for host-read adverts.
Forward of AI playlists, Spotify launched an analogous characteristic, Area of interest Mixes, that allowed customers to create customized playlists utilizing prompts, however the product didn’t leverage AI expertise and was extra restricted when it comes to its language understanding.