Spotify launches 'DJ,' a new feature offering personalized music with AI-powered commentary

Ahead of Spotify's upcoming Stream On event, where the company is expected to announce a redesigned home feed and other updates, the company today launched a new AI feature called "DJ" to better personalize the music listening experience for its users. Similar to a radio DJ, Spotify's DJ feature will deliver a curated selection of music alongside AI-powered spoken commentary about the tracks and artists you like, using what Spotify says is a "stunningly realistic voice."

The idea, explains the company, is for Spotify to get to know users so well that the DJ can choose what to play for you when you hit the button. Or, as Spotify says, it's putting an "AI DJ in your pocket."

More broadly, the feature has the potential to turn Spotify into a lean-back, passive experience for those times users don't feel like dictating to Spotify what to stream next or fumbling around with its interface to find a playlist they like.

The OpenAI-powered feature is still in beta testing as of the time of today's launch and is only available in English for Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada for the time being.

For years, Spotify has led the market with its personalization technology, launching its flagship playlist Discover Weekly back in 2015 to immediate success. This was then followed by a number of other playlists designed to cater to the end user's unique preferences, including Release Radar, Daily Mixes, Your Time Capsule, Blend and those aimed at specific activities, like commuting or working out, among other things. In more recent years, Spotify has also become a trendsetter with its personalized annual review, Spotify Wrapped, which has since been copycatted by its rivals.

With the wider technology market now focused on new ways to leverage AI advances, it was only a matter of time before Spotify rolled out its own take on how modern AI could be used to improve its personalization experience.

Image Credits: Spotify screenshot

In this case, the company says its new DJ feature is a combination of its existing personalization technology, an AI voice from its 2022 Sonantic acquisition, and Generative AI through the use of OpenAI technology. (Spotify tells us it has a business relationship with OpenAI, but did not refer to the company as a partner.)

Instead, Spotify says it provided its music editors, experts, scriptwriters and data curators with access to OpenAI's Generative AI tech in order to scale their insights about music, artists and genres. The technology is being put to use to create "culturally relevant, accurate pieces of commentary at scale," the company says. (Accuracy is perhaps a key word here, given Bing and Google's recent AI failures. Time will tell if Spotify's use case faces similar struggles.)

As listeners engage with the new DJ feature, they'll be presented with a personalized stream of songs that will include both newer tracks and old favorites. This stream will be continually refreshed, we understand. As they listen, they'll also hear commentary directly followed by the song it's referring to.

For example, the AI may share commentary like:

“This week, Chicago rapper Polo G teams up with Atlanta's Future for his first release of the year. This also marks the pair's first collaboration, but they're united by production from Southside, who has worked extensively with both and is said to be responsible for most of the music on Polo's upcoming project.”