After coming to the U.K. and Australia in April, Spotify's AI playlist function is now available for users in the US, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland. In Spotify's own words: "AI Playlist combines Spotify’s powerful personalization technology with generative AI so users can turn their most creative ideas into playlists."
What does that mean for you? You know how you can tell a generative AI model how you want a picture to look and it spits out a seven-fingered abomination? It's a bit like that, only you write about your ideal playlist, and Spotify's AI playlist bot scours the service for music that fits the bill, forming a slick playlist just for you.
The feature is still in beta at the moment, but accessing it is super easy, particularly if you follow Spotify's steps in the image below. But is it any good?
Does it work?
It's... it's certainly a thing. Its definitions of certain genre terms are definitely slightly out. Let's make an example. I love heavy music: And I mean heavy music. Crushing, obliterating — those are the kinds of words I use to describe my favorite music. So when I asked the AI playlist maker to create a playlist of "the heaviest music imaginable", that's exactly what I was hoping for. If you look below, it didn't deliver.
Now, you can refine the playlist — so I did. "No, heavier". And, sure enough, rather than baby's first heavy music (sorry, Slipknot fans), it spat out some hardcore and called it a day.
But I want more. I want music that feels like there's a grindstone around my neck, and I'm being made to do manual labour. Like I'm being physically assualted by the musicians. "HEAVIER".
Sure enough, this time I got what I wanted — heavy music from the depths, Celtic Frost, Dragged into the Sunlight. The kind of music most people balk at. Excellent.
Now my example is about as niche as niche could be, but it highlights that you need to work with the playlist builder a little to get what you really want. Of course, if you just want something to chill out with while you and your friends have a barbeque, then typing in "chill, family-friendly summer barbeque vibes" gives you a suitable playlist to grill meat to.
Is it worth using?
Look, I'm actually a terrible example of someone to try out the AI playlist builder. I like to carefully construct my playlists until I've an hours-long monstrosity filled with music that suits that specific mood or title. To me, playlist building is an art — and, like a picture of a nice view, I'd rather a person make it rather than a learning AI model. But that's just me.
For everyone else, the playlist maker could be quite a lot of fun, and actually quite useful. If you've got a party coming up, a chill session with your old high school friends, or even a wedding (and you want to save money on increasingly expensive DJs), then you could get some use out of it. Just bear in mind (particularly you, wedding people) that a person doing it is going to do a much better job.
It's a nice addition to Spotify's slate of AI features, slotting perfectly next to the likes of the AI DJ that tells you what's coming next when you let a playlist or album play out and the 'what's next' algorithm takes over.
Neither feature is going to pull me back to your service though Spotify — not until you give me my Spotify HiFi.
More from Tom's Guide
- I trialed Apple Music for 3 months — and now I'm going back to Spotify
- I'm leaving Spotify — but not because of the Joe Rogan controversy
- I asked ChatGPT to roast my Spotify playlists — and it didn't hold back
