Last month, Spotify announced “Prompted Playlist,” a new feature the company claimed let users “steer the algorithm.” This was a bold—if not vague—claim, to be sure, but it was backed by everyone’s favorite tech trend of the last three years: AI. The pitch was that Spotify would let subscribers use the company’s AI models to better control their listening experience, so long as they lived in the country of New Zealand. That’s a very small slice of Spotify’s very large user base.
Luckily for those of us in the United States and Canada, Prompted Playlist is expanding to our side of North America. Spotify announced the move today, Jan. 21: Now, Premium subscribers in any of these three countries can access the feature, if they want to hand over the playlist reigns to Spotify’s machine learning models.
What is Prompted Playlist?
Prompted Playlist is Spotify’s AI-powered tool that lets you use natural language to create custom playlists. The idea is, rather than look for songs to add to a playlist, you tell Spotify’s AI what you’re in the mood to listen to, and it adds songs automatically for you. That can include genres and existing songs, but also ideas, deeper descriptions, and, for lack of a better word, vibes.
To understand what I mean, here are some of the suggested prompts Spotify suggests you try:
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“Make me a playlist of songs I’ve saved to my Library (playlists or Liked Songs) that I either haven’t played yet or have only listened to once. The goal is to round up those songs I found, saved, and then totally forgot to revisit. Give me a chance to finally hear what I’ve been missing.”
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“What are the first tracks I ever listened to on Spotify? Order them by the very first track I ever streamed – with date and time – and keep going.”
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“Knowing what I listen to today, make me a playlist of songs from 2016 that match my current taste, mixing the biggest tracks from that year with songs that feel timeless now.”
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“Make me a playlist to help me learn Spanish, with clear vocals and easy-to-follow lyrics. Mix popular Spanish-language songs with slower tracks that make it easier to catch the words, and include music that reflects different Spanish-speaking cultures to keep it engaging.”
Spotify says that Prompted Playlist takes your existing listening history into account as well. While you and a friend might give Spotify’s AI the same prompt, in theory, you should each receive different playlists, since the AI will make adjustments based on the music you like and don’t like. You also don’t have to wonder why the AI put a specific song in the playlist: Each track starts with a “quick one-liner” that explains why Spotify chose it in the first place. I could see that being either insightful, or extremely annoying.
The thing is, Spotify has rolled out a feature like this before, appropriately dubbed “AI Playlist.” Lifehacker’s David Nield covered it in September of 2024, and catching up on that feature, it sounds pretty similar to Prompted Playlist. AI Playlist isn’t actually going away now that Prompted Playlist is here: Spotify tells me that these are two separate features, and that the major differences are that Prompted Playlist factors in your entire Spotify listening history, going back to your first song, as well as real-time information about “trends, charts, culture, and history” in the industry today. You can also schedule playlists if you like, so the mix refreshes every day or week, something you can’t do with AI Playlist.
What do you think so far?
From my seat, it also seems like Prompted Playlist is designed to handle more complex prompts, as well. While the company advertised AI Playlist as a way to build playlists from prompts like “upbeat pop music for my road trip,” the company’s suggested Prompted Playlist prompts are much more intricate, and include multiple levels of instruction for the AI. Perhaps part of that is the result of improvements in the technology over the past year and half.
How to try Spotify’s Prompted Playlist
Prompted Playlist is launching as a Premium-only feature, so if you don’t pay for Spotify, you unfortunately can’t access it. If you do have a Premium account, you’ll need to head to Spotify, tap “Create,” then choose “Prompted Playlist.”
As explained above, from here, you can describe what kind of playlist you want the tool to make. From here, you’ll be able to set how often it refreshes (if it refreshes at all). If you’re not happy with the results, you can choose “Edit Prompt” to adjust it. You can share the playlist with friends, but know that Spotify will adjust the playlist to match their listening histories instead.
Originally published at Lifehacker
