Spotify's AI Playlist Builder Now Available

Spotify is expanding its AI feature that creates personalized playlists based on user text descriptions to additional English-speaking countries. Starting today, Spotify Premium subscribers in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand (students starting at $5.99 per month, individuals at $11.99 per month) can access the beta version of AI-generated playlists. This feature was first introduced earlier this year in the UK and Australia.

Users can access this feature by clicking the "+" button in the top right corner of the Spotify library within the mobile app. After selecting "AI Playlist" from the dropdown menu, a chat window will appear where you can describe the desired playlist, such as "spooky songs for Halloween" or "relaxing folk music suitable for a bath." The feature will also offer suggested prompts. Currently, the beta version of the AI Playlist is not available on Spotify's desktop or web applications.

The generated playlists contain 30 songs and can be further refined with additional prompts to better match the desired mood, such as requesting more upbeat music. Specifying genres, decades, emotions, or artists in the description can yield better results. In my own testing, I found it impressive that the AI could match songs to niche descriptions like "make me feel like a vampire hunter from the 1998 film Blade."

Spotify has indicated that the feature is still in the testing phase, and they are "actively learning and iterating" on it. Improvements to the AI Playlist are expected in the future.