Spotify Expands AI DJ Availability

In February this year, Spotify launched an AI DJ feature that acts as a personal radio DJ. The AI DJ was originally available to premium users in the US and Canada and is now rolling out for premium subscribers in the UK and Ireland.

The feature is currently in beta, meaning that users can experience occasional glitches. The company describes it as “the very best of Spotify’s personalization – but as an AI DJ in your pocket.”

Spotify’s AI DJ is powered by OpenAI’s technology, an AI startup behind the industry-shifting chatbot ChatGPT. Spotify also acquired AI voice generation startup Sonantic in 2022, which is responsible for the creation of AI DJ’s ultra-realistic voice.

The AI DJ collects information from previously played songs and the music the user is currently consuming. Similar to other AI technologies, the tool learns more about personal musical preferences over time. It uses feedback to constantly create new and more personalized playlists. Based on this information, it might play a combination of old and current favorites, plus new music that aligns with the user’s musical taste.

Spotify’s tool can play curated music lists, along with AI-generated – yet human-sounding – commentary related to the artists and songs. Spotify’s Head of Cultural Partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan, used his voice to train the AI DJ’s voice model. Spotify users are familiar with his voice from the platform’s first-ever morning show, “The Get Up,” and his own podcast.

Aside from playing personalized playlists, the AI voice notifies users of new songs and albums that might interest them. Through the promotion of new releases, concerts, and collaborations, Spotify could eventually use this feature to create a new source of revenue for its platform.

According to Spotify data, the AI DJ has been a hit among Millennials and Gen Z since its launch in February this year. These two generations accounted for 87% of the total AI DJ users. Spotify also revealed that listeners use the AI DJ feature for 25% of their time on the platform on any given day.

AI everything is on the rise right now, including AI-powered music. Earlier this year, Google introduced MusicLM, an AI tool that can create music from text prompts, and opened it to the public last week.