Now that AI has become mainstream, we are in an era where most mainstream products are offering some type of AI-assisted service, with varying degrees of success. Spotify is by no means a newcomer to the mix, having launched its AI DJ feature last year. Early this April, Spotify began beta testing its latest AI offering, a new option called ‘AI playlist’, featuring AI assistance in creating playlists catering to different moods, interests, and so on. It will do so by generating playlists on written prompts given by users. For now, only premium users on Android and iOS devices in the U.K. and Australia are testing out the new functionality. The company had confirmed that this technology had been in development in December of 2023— but the news had been public since October of the same year.
Spotify is a company that has been very driven towards AI technology in improving the services it offers, broadening its stakes and investment in the technology. The strategy is a prudent, rather than a radical one: the app store is swamped with both paid-for and free music streaming apps—and despite its prominence, Spotify has to compete with these daily to retain its position at the top of the race. Last year, the company teased other ways in which AI technology could be leveraged in driving profit, and stated publicly that it would be investing in in-house research to understand how this could be achieved. As mentioned, the AI DJ, which has been expanding across territories since last year, is one of these AI-based tools/services that Spotify offers. This now-popular service is a combination of different technologies to artificially create the voice of the head of cultural partnerships of the company to introduce song selections.
Although it hardly seems credible, creating playlists out of the music we most love or categorising them by a particular emotion or feeling they invoke was not always possible with the technology available to us. Even then, sharing them amongst ourselves came a little more later. Since then, however, creating and sharing playlists among friends and family has become an integral part of the modern communal experience. By creating said playlists, we put together certain elements of our experience for our loved ones to listen to and hopefully, relate to. On the other hand, playlists are also an important vehicle of travel for music on the interwebs, broadening the musical horizons of everyone who socialises through music. And yet, none of these is the most important function of playlists to most people who create them: they can make you feel nostalgic. Our earliest playlists have the power to bring back our memories of our youth, from the struggle and confusion of looking for a sense of self to the excitement of being immortal and superhuman without a care in the world.
This is the realm to which AI has now entered, and how it will be received is up to its users to decide. If playlists have so long been our way of capturing our lived experience, Spotify’s new feature promises to be a way of capturing the things we can’t quite manage ourselves—or even ones that are more than just a little beyond us. Spotify’s official website offers its own suggestions: ‘an indie folk playlist to give my brain a big warm hug’, ‘relaxing music to tide me over during allergy season. It can be even more creative and specific: ‘a playlist that makes me feel like the main character’, or ‘sad music for painting dying flowers’. AI assistance makes it possible to collect and collate music that matches these prompts using a Large Language Model (LLM). The app user can then go through this playlist and ‘swipe left’ on the songs that don’t match the vibe they want. The playlist can also be improved further by simply asking the AI to give more or less of what you want such as a request to be ‘more pop’, or ‘less upbeat’.
In addition to the text prompts you provide, the AI also uses the user data you generate to customize the playlists it creates. As might be expected, Spotify does use a variety of third-party AI tools as well as machine learning experience to provide this service. The nature of the technology that goes into creating this deeply human experience of music has earned it the name of ‘Spotify’s ChatGPT’, at least among those currently privileged enough to be testing it out. But how do you go about actually using it?
As of now, the AI feature is located in the ‘Your Library’ menu of the app. Tapping on this option yields a pop-up menu, which will now include ‘AI Playlist’ alongside the ‘Playlist’ and ‘Blend’, options of yore. This also helpfully provides prompt suggestions for those of us who are easily overwhelmed when offered a plethora of choices. Once the playlist of your dreams has been created and curated, you tap ‘create’ to add it to your Library. It is important to note that there are some limits to what you and your AI assistant can create on the app. For example, the AI will not create playlists that are based on offensive words or phrases. The AI also doesn’t cater to prompts that are based on current events or specific brands. It appears as if Spotify has reason to believe that allowing these would have the potential to backfire on their brand, and badly.
Services such as these, powered by AI, might play a role in the anticipated price hikes that Spotify is set to implement later this year. As of now, student Premium subscriptions begin at $5.99 per month, while individual plans start at $10.99.
(Theruni Liyanage)