Spotify’s AI playlist-making function, once only available in the U.K and Australia, has finally made its way to the United States.
The feature, rolled out earlier this week in beta, allows Spotify Premium users to prompt a chatbot with whatever genre, emotion, or life event they want their music to represent. Spotify’s AI will in turn spew out a playlist, made up of tunes tht reflect both the prompt and user’s listening history.
Molly Holder, Spotify senior product director of personalization, told Fast Company via email that the streamer sees playlists as a “hotbed of discovery,” and the AI-generated ones can help users better personalize the process of discovering new music—if they give it the best prompts.
In other words, users have to know what they’re looking for, which will help them use the tool effectively. Here are the best ways to use Spotify’s AI playlist function to maximize your enjoyment, based on 24 hours of experimenting and suggestions from Holder.
Specificity is key—to a point.
For optimal playlists, prompts should be specific to what the user is feeling. Some prompts that steered thoughtful collections included: “I’m sick, make me a playlist” yielded “Soothing Uplifts,” prompting “Make a playlist I shouldn’t share with my mom” led to “Rebellious Vibes,” and “Make me a playlist for falling in love” produced “Love’s Melodic Whispers.” The chatbot even successfully crafted a playlist based on the fall chill in the air, pulling together “Boston Weather Vibes” with a hefty supply of mellow Lord Huron songs.
“The more specific you can be, the better,” Holder said. “The most successful playlists are generated through ‘genre,’ ‘mood’ or ‘artist’ prompts, but animals, activities, movie characters, colors—and even emojis—are all fair game too.”
Where the bot is less successful, then, is responding to vague prompts. After asking for a playlist of “new songs I should be listening to,” the bot spurted out some generic pop: Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj. When asked to produce a playlist based on my previous prompts, the bot produced a “Sonic Tapestry” playlist that wasn’t a tapestry at all, but a homogenous grouping of indie pop.
Holder also emphasized that users can refine their playlists, adding prompts like “more upbeat” or “happier songs” to better reach their end goal. After telling the bot to make sick-day playlist “Soothing Uplifts” more uptempo, it produced “Speedy Recovery Grooves.”
Of course, that specificity has a threshold; the playlists tend to revert back to a base genre or emotionality, meaning a highly ornate prompt may lead to an unexpectedly basic response. When asked to curate a playlist “for a dinner party of art students who love smoking cigarettes and reading poetry,” the bot merely produced “Artistic Vibes,” which didn’t quite fit the bill with its Hozier and Phoebe Bridgers tracks.
What’s off limits.
The AI inevitably hit some dead ends. Spotify has a policy against offensive prompts, though that definition can be broad: The bot shuts down in response to requests for “dangerous,” “deceptive,” “sensitive” or “illegal” content. If you want a playlist of “songs for my anti-vax study session,” Spotify will politely decline.
Anything political, even the relatively tame, is off the table. The bot won’t grant a request for “songs to get me hyped up for a Kamala Harris rally,” or for “songs that Donald Trump would enjoy.” Of course, less partisan prompts will go through: A request for a playlist to “score my mayoral race” offers up a smattering of songs themed “Election Energy.”
“The feature is in beta mode, so we’re still actively learning and iterating with each exchange,” Holder said. “While it’s designed to be fun, the tool won’t produce results for non-music-related prompts, like current events or specific brands.”
And, for the AI-wary, Spotify’s function can’t gain a sort of sentience or opinion. When asked for the AI’s favorite playlist, it immediately redirects: “I’m here to create a playlist that matches your mood or activity. Let me know what you’re looking for!”
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