Spotify AI Playlists Bring the Party to the UK and Australia

This spring, Spotify launched a new service for its premium members in the UK and Australia: any premium user could now turn a simple idea into a personalized playlist using AI with just the touch of a button.

And there’s more: if users want a different vibe, they can modify the playlist with suggestions like “remove sad songs” to keep the vibes high.  

Influencers and media shared the update with enthusiasm in April 2024 as the international rollout began. But, do people love it? Did people flock to it for creative tunes to play as the background of their lives? Or, did it become a flash-in-the-pan with silly results, like the AI selfie generator fad of late 2022? Let’s take a look at the feedback from the UK and Australia launch, before it heads to the U.S. later this year.

So far, those who have tested the product seem to feel like it’s a fun schtick, and certainly faster than hunting and choosing 30+ songs manually. Journalist Jess Weatherbed of The Verge shared, “In my testing, AI Playlists did an impressive job of matching songs to niche prompts. For example, it spat out a delightful mix of rave-appropriate techno music when I asked it to generate a playlist that would “make me feel like a vampire hunter from Blade (1998)” and even titled the playlist as “Blade’s Essence” without additional input.” Jess also noted that the platform “provides some functionality as a music discovery tool for those who want to find new tunes that follow a specific aesthetic."

Others had some fun with trying to outsmart the AI with prompts that pushed the boundaries and prompted Spotify to shut down the request, like Gizmodo’s reporter Athina Mallis’ request for “I’m about to commit a crime.” And while those went too far, Mallis had some luck with requests like “nepo baby pop.” For those of us in the U.S., we'll have to wait until later this year to give it a shot, but we'll be stockpiling playlist prompt ideas until then.