If you’re a Spotify premium subscriber and are eager to try out the music streaming service’s AI capabilities for creating prompt-based playlists, we have good news. After rolling out AI Playlist to premium subscribers in the UK and Australia in early 2024, the feature is now expanding to the US, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand in English.
You can now use Spotify's AI to create a playlist based on a phrase that can be as short as a single word. You'll need to be a Premium member, though, which in the US costs from $11.99 per month for an individual account, $16.99 per month for a Duo account (i.e. two accounts), or $19.99 per month for a family subscription.
The feature, called AI Playlist, can be found in the Spotify app for Android or iOS, but not on the desktop or web version. Just make sure you have the latest version of the app installed. For example, I don't have any updates and I still don't see it.
Using AI to create a playlist
Once the feature arrives in your Spotify app associated with the correct subscription, open the app and tap “Library” in the bottom right corner. Then, tap the plus sign in the top right corner and look for the AI Playlist option.
From there, you're good to go: You enter a message and watch as a playlist is created. Spotify notes that the more detail you provide, the better, but you can also refine it further after the first playlist is created by giving it another message. You can use words, numbers, or emojis, but Spotify doesn't allow offensive words. It also suggests that when you're first trying out this feature, you get specific: possibly with a genre, location, or even characters.
As with any AI, especially a chatbot, which this is something of, results will vary, and Spotify is quick to reiterate that AI Playlist is in beta. Considering Spotify is already pretty accurate with music recommendations, adding this level of personalization via AI is a cool feature that we can’t wait to try out.
It's now available in English for Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, after being available for several months in the UK and Australia. If you want to try it out, keep the Spotify app updated on your phone and check to see if “AI Playlist” appears. Until then, you'll have to create your next Fire playlist the old-fashioned way… manually.
