I’ve been testing Spotify’s generative AI to make my playlists — and it’s redefining my music taste

As a lifelong music fan, one of my favorite pastimes is curating playlists. Whether it’s a major life event or a longer-than-usual drive, you can rest assured that I’ll have a playlist ready for the occasion in no time. I’d even go so far as to call it a superpower of mine.

With Spotify, making playlists has always been simple. You can add to playlists in various ways in the app, and you even get recommended songs to add to your playlist based on the existing songs and your listening habits.

Prompted Playlists brings a new level to the playlist game. It uses generative AI to build personalized playlists quickly using your prompts and listening habits.

As this is a beta feature, it’s still rolling out in some regions, but a quick update of the app should allow you access to it if you don’t have it already.

How to create your own Prompted Playlist

Creating your own Prompted Playlist couldn’t be easier — all you need is a little creative flair. Head to the plus icon in the button on the right of the screen and select Prompted Playlist.

From here, Spotify asks you to “describe your perfect playlist in as much detail as you want.” Of course, the more detail you use, the more personal to you the playlist is going to be. Even if you only write a few lines, the generative AI does a great job of pulling together some great tracks that fit the brief.

But if you don’t feel like wracking your brain for a detailed prompt, Spotify also has a whole bunch for you to choose from, and these are seemingly tailored to your personal taste.

While selecting what you want to make your playlist about, you can also set up a schedule for the playlist to continuously update, kind of like the Daylist options from the streaming service. I love this feature as it means you never get bored.

My results

I tried creating a few different playlists using prompts provided by Spotify. These included music that makes me feel like the main character in a movie of my life entitled “My Life as a Movie,” and also what my taste would be like in the ‘80s, with a playlist called “Parallel Universe: My taste in Another Era.”

Both of these playlists adopted a lot of music I already listen to, and added in a few surprise tracks that I hadn’t listened to in a couple of years, or had never heard before. The ‘80s playlist intrigued me, as in the short description notes, it cited Sam Fender’s anthemic rush and The 1975’s neon groove as major influences. These are both artists who have spoken about their influences from the 80s, such as Bruce Springsteen and Joy Division.

I’ve had my Spotify account since I was in high school, so there’s a lot of information for Spotify to be using about my listening habits to create the best playlists for my taste. And I think it does a great job.

My favorite playlist that I created was one for a hypothetical holiday. I love creating playlists when I’m heading somewhere new, as I can use those songs to remind me of where I was and what I was doing — I’m a sucker for nostalgia.

I told Spotify that I was heading on a trip to Italy with my friend and I wanted a playlist to capture the memories we would make. Spotify understood the assignment.

It gave me a playlist titled “Italian Summer Memories” (pretty on the nose), and it gave me the perfect summer mix. It also added in some regional tracks that I wouldn’t have been listening to otherwise. I love being introduced to new music, so this is a great way to do that.

Am I going to be using it?

As I mentioned earlier, I love creating playlists. I have so many that I regularly rotate through based on genre, mood and activity. I often go through my Spotify and clean it up too, deleting and adding new playlists – it’s pretty cathartic.

But I’m an advocate for the romance of the humble playlist. Making a playlist for people you love, receiving playlists that remind someone of you, is one of the best feelings.

That said, my favorite part of the playlists created by Spotify is the short description of each song. I felt like I was learning a lot about the songs. But at times, this feels almost like a justification of why the song made its way into the playlist, but I appreciate learning a little about the music while I listen, and it creates an element of personalization.

I often worry that integration of AI into something so human as making a playlist for someone is troublesome — that we’re losing the romance that comes with creation. But I think Spotify’s Prompted Playlists offer a way of expressing your feelings without delving too far below the surface.

So if you just want some vibey tunes it’/s a great feature. But please, I quite literally beg, don’t make a playlist for the person you love with AI.

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