After experimenting with AI-powered playlist creation in its DJ feature last year, Spotify is now launching a beta tool that lets users create a curated tracklist based on text descriptions. New beta version of AI Playlist It's initially rolling out to Spotify Premium subscribers on mobile devices in the UK and Australia.
Android and iOS users on those sites can find the AI playlist builder by heading to “Your Library” and tapping the “+” button at the top right of the page. After selecting the AI playlist option from the drop-down menu, users can type a prompt — such as “Music to read on a cold, rainy day” — to get a playlist of 30 songs that match that feeling. The results can be modified with additional prompts such as “More sad music” until the user is satisfied with the playlist, at which point they can be saved by clicking “Create” at the top right.
In my testing, the AI playlists did a great job of matching songs to niche prompts. For example, she released an upbeat mix of appropriate techno music when I asked her to create a playlist that “makes me feel like a vampire hunter from… code (1998)” and even named the playlist “Blade's Essence” with no additional entries. Spotify says users will get better playlists by using prompts that contain “a range of genres, moods, artists or decades”, and that it can indicate Places, animals, activities, movie characters, colors, and even emojis will be enabled by this feature.Spotify says it will continue working on the generative playlist feature “over the coming months.”
There are some limitations to be aware of – AI playlists won't produce results for non-music claims like current events or specific brands, and there are “measures in place for abusive claims” for example.
Using it has been a pleasant experience so far. It's a much faster way to put together a music collection than creating a playlist manually, and it offers some functionality as a music discovery tool for those who want to find new tunes that follow a particular aesthetic. This actually makes it more useful than Spotify's AI DJ, which creates a personalized playlist based on your entire listening history with limited options for organizing the final results.
However, the new feature could also be a contributing factor to the price increases that Spotify is expected to offer later this year. Currently, premium subscriptions start at $5.99 per month for students or $10.99 for individuals. We asked Spotify when other regions can expect the beta and will update this story if we hear back.
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