Spotify is rolling out a new AI-powered playlist creation tool, Prompted Playlists, to its Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The feature allows users to generate custom playlists by describing what they want to hear in detailed, conversational language, moving beyond simple keyword commands.
From Simple Prompts to Conversational Curation
Prompted Playlists represents a significant evolution from Spotify’s earlier AI playlist product launched in 2024, which handled simpler prompts like “instrumental electronica for focus.” The new tool is designed to understand more complex and nuanced requests.
For example, a user could enter a long prompt such as, “Find me one artist I haven’t listened to yet, but would probably love… Build a playlist of songs that’ll give me an overview of their catalog so it feels like I’m getting to know them. Put the songs you think I’ll like the most in the top five spots.”
J.J. Italiano, Head of Global Music Curation and Discovery at Spotify, explains that the goal is to democratize playlist creation.
“This gives listeners access to that creative process without needing to know genres, or years, or industry language. You don’t need the right words. You just need your words,” Italiano stated. “If you can describe a feeling, you can make a playlist.”
Personalization and Discovery
The AI behind the feature analyzes real-time music trends, cultural moments, and historical data, alongside a user’s complete listening history. This allows for deeply personalized results by default.
However, the tool also serves as a powerful discovery engine. Users can explicitly instruct the AI to ignore their listening habits or introduce them to entirely new artists and songs, helping them break out of their usual musical comfort zones.
Relevance for MENA’s Music and Tech Scene
While the initial launch is limited to North America and the English language, this development holds significant implications for the MENA region’s vibrant tech and music landscape. As a key market for music streaming with a large, digitally-native youth population, the demand for hyper-personalized experiences is high.
This move by a global leader like Spotify sets a new benchmark for user engagement, likely influencing regional players like Anghami and other tech startups. The potential future localization of such AI tools for Arabic language and regional music catalogs could unlock new levels of user interaction. Furthermore, it highlights the growing trend of leveraging generative AI to create more intuitive and human-centric product experiences, a key lesson for founders across the MENA ecosystem.
About Spotify
Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with a community of over 615 million monthly active users and 239 million Premium subscribers. With a presence in over 180 markets and more than 100 million tracks, including 6 million podcast titles, it has transformed how people access and enjoy music and podcasts.
Source: TechCrunch
