Spotify has announced the release of its new artificial intelligence (AI) powered DJ that will learn users’ music preferences and select new content for them.
Key Details
- The music streamer is releasing the new DJ in its beta phase. Listeners will receive a personalized lineup of music along with commentary about the tracks and artists voiced by the AI.
- Spotify’s DJ will look through a user’s listening history to calibrate his music tastes. It will circulate older songs a user likes and pick out newer additions.
- Users can fine-tune the AI’s selections by giving feedback. If a song doesn’t seem right, users can skip a song, providing the DJ with more data to select songs.
Why it’s news
Personalizing a listener’s experience isn’t new to Spotify services. Spotify’s Discovery Weekly and annual Wrapped campaigns already provide playlists that reflect users’ preferences. Through AI, Spotify will be able to personalize listener experiences even more.
Spotify also represents the latest company to take advantage of OpenAI’s generative AI technology. The DJ won’t just select songs but provide commentary about the music a user is listening to or give background on an artist. Editors at Spotify will guide the AI content, ensuring users have the best information available.
The DJ will also feature a dynamic AI voice that Spotify says sounds “stunningly realistic” rather than robotic. One of Spotify’s employees, Head of Cultural Partnerships Xavier Jernigan, modeled as the DJ’s voice.
Spotify’s new tool could draw new listeners as it takes the choice and decision-making out of the equation for listeners who want to enjoy music and podcasts passively.
Backing up a bit
Spotify’s Stream On event next month will feature several updates to the audio streaming service, including a reported TikTok-like upgrade.
Like other social-media platforms looking to compete with TikTok, Spotify may be changing its look to more closely resemble the vertically swiped homepage found on TikTok. Rather than selecting a music album from a carousel of still images, users will swipe through content that begins playing automatically, Bloomberg reports. The videos playing can range from longer video content to looping GIFs.
During Spotify’s investor day last summer, executives explained that the new format is intended to bring cohesion to the platform’s music, podcast, and audiobook content.
Spotify has not officially announced the update but told Bloomberg that the company runs a “number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience. Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience, and others serve only as important learnings. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.”