Spotify Developing AI-Generated Playlists Based on User Prompts: A New Era for Personalized Music Streaming

Spotify is expanding its AI capabilities following the successful introduction of its AI-powered DJ feature and, more recently, support for AI-translated podcasts. The latest development appears to be AI-powered playlists that users can create using custom prompts. Insights extracted from the app's code suggest that Spotify is working on generative AI playlists that cater to users' preferences.

Tech expert and investor Chris Messina discovered references in Spotify's code to "AI playlists" and "playlists based on your prompts." He speculated that this feature might be incorporated into Spotify's existing Blend genre, which combines the musical tastes of multiple users to create harmonious playlists for everyone involved.

Spotify has not officially confirmed any plans regarding these AI playlists. A spokesperson stated, “At Spotify, we continuously innovate to enhance our product offerings and provide value to our users. However, we do not comment on speculation about potential new features and have no new information to share at this time.”

Interestingly, Spotify has already made strides toward AI playlists with its Niche Mixes feature, launched earlier this year. This functionality allows users to generate unique playlists based solely on descriptive prompts. Users can specify anything from a specific genre to an overall vibe, creating unique mixes like Cottagecore Indie Mix, Bubblegum Pop Mix, Discofox Mix, Feel Good Driving Mix, and more. Although these mixes resemble an AI-driven experience, Spotify clarified that they are powered by the company's advanced personalization algorithms rather than AI.

Messina's findings indicate that the upcoming AI playlists will utilize prompts as well, although he has not yet found this feature available in the public app; this is currently confined to the underlying code.

He suspects that the new AI playlists could be related to the Blend feature, as some code references suggest users might be able to collaborate on creating these playlists. All these code discoveries were made in the latest version of the Spotify app, highlighting that this is indeed a feature under development.

Not all experimental features in the tech world make it to the end user, but Spotify’s ongoing efforts illustrate its commitment to incorporating AI into music personalization. The company has previously indicated that innovations like the AI DJ are just the beginning of its integration of AI technologies. Spotify's head of Personalization, Ziad Sultan, mentioned earlier this year that a dedicated team is exploring advanced language models and machine learning applications, aiming to understand "all the possibilities across Large Language Models, generative voice, and personalization."