Spotify expands AI Playlist feature to new markets including US, Canada

September 27, 2024 - 6:27 PM
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A smartphone and a headset are seen in front of a screen projection of Spotify logo, in this picture illustration taken April 1, 2018. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

Spotify SPOT.N is expanding its tool that helps create playlists using generative artificial intelligence for premium users to four new markets, including the United States and Canada, the Swedish streaming giant said on Tuesday.

AI Playlist, which is currently offered in beta, helps subscribers personalize their selection of songs that can be refined via additional text prompts.

Spotify is expanding AI Playlist to fresh markets, including Ireland and New Zealand, in a bid to attract new subscribers by sprucing up its app with AI amid growing competition from rival services by Apple AAPL.O and Amazon.com AMZN.O.

Spotify said the feature, which was launched in the United Kingdom and Australia in April, will not produce results for non-music-related prompts such as current events or specific brands, as it is still in beta.

The company also offers tools such as ‘daylist’, a personalized playlist that updates daily with new music recommendations, and ‘AI DJ’, which creates music recommendations based on users’ listening habits.

The company’s paying subscribers rose about 12% from a year earlier to 246 million during the second quarter.

 —Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas