In the modern day, artificial intelligence has become a bigger part of people’s lives than anyone could have ever imagined. It can write you a story, do your homework (poorly), imitate famous figures, or even help you run a business.
As of last year, Spotify users can add playlist generation to the extensive list of AI capabilities. The addition of this feature went under the radar of most people, so I thought I’d give it a try and figure out what it’s all about.
The principal is simple. You type a prompt and Spotify pops out a playlist. After about a week of messing around with different prompts and phrasing, I can say with confidence that it’s reasonably good at making certain kinds of playlists.
Spotify already had several computer made song compilations like Discover Weekly and Genre Mixes. These fixtures had one common issue however; A week is way too long for a change of songs.
This is one of the biggest benefits of the new feature. I could make a playlist almost instantly and when I didn’t like how it turned out, I could easily wait a few more seconds for a new one.
Spotify collects a lot of information about your listening to make it easy to discover something new. Since the AI playlist creator is part of Spotify, it can use that information too. Simply put, if you find the right prompt, you can copy some of Spotify’s most unique features in seconds rather than days.
This tracklist generator has a few big limitations though, one being the accuracy. Like many of the prompt based AI, sometimes the result makes no sense in the given context. I didn’t have to look hard to find Bruno Mars on a rock playlist or Taylor Swift somehow lumped in with jazz.
There’s also the issue of coming up with new ways to ask for the same playlist. Using the same wording leads to the same playlist being made, so constantly adapting your prompt writing can be tedious.
The worst flaw, however, is that a computer just isn’t as creative as a person. Every playlist the AI makes falls short of most unique tasks given to it. If you want a playlist of songs with funny titles, sadly you’ll have to make it yourself.
AI playlist is still in beta, so improvements aren’t out of the question, but right now it’s only good for discovering new music. While lacking in it’s actual purpose, this is still a feature I’ll continue to use.
