Spotify rolls out AI prompted playlists to boost discovery

Spotify has rolled out its Prompted Playlist feature in the United States and Canada, allowing Premium subscribers to generate playlists using conversational prompts that reflect their listening preferences and mood. The company stated that the feature enables users to describe what they want to listen to in natural language, with playlists generated based on their listening history and specific instructions.

The rollout follows a pilot in New Zealand and appears to be part of Spotify’s broader effort to convert free users into paid subscribers. In a blog post, the company said the feature allows users to shape how music is discovered for them, including choosing fresher tracks, emerging artists, deeper catalogue cuts, or excluding certain genres. Spotify stated that Prompted Playlist gives users greater control over discovery, ranging from personalised versions of Discover Weekly to entirely new listening experiences shaped around cultural moments or specific moods.

Unlike earlier AI-driven features that produced static playlists, Prompted Playlist allows users to set clear rules and parameters to guide the algorithm. Spotify informed that listeners can use prompts such as asking for a playlist suited to a long winter drive featuring downtempo tracks from the 2000s, enabling the system to tailor results more precisely.

Molly Holder, vice-president of product personalisation at Spotify, said during a media briefing that listeners want more than passive personalisation and increasingly want to actively shape their own listening experience.