Spotify is expanding its use of artificial intelligence with the wider rollout of Prompted Playlists, a new tool that lets Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada build playlists simply by describing what they want to hear in natural, conversational language. After an initial test in New Zealand, the feature is now being positioned as a major step in how listeners discover and organize music on the platform.
Prompted Playlists builds on Spotify’s earlier AI playlist experiments, which allowed users to type in relatively simple instructions such as “get focused at work with instrumental electronica” or “get pumped up with fun, upbeat, and positive songs.” Those early prompts were useful but limited: they worked best when listeners already had a clear sense of genre, mood, or activity.
The new version is designed to feel more like talking to a knowledgeable friend who knows both music and your tastes. Instead of short, rigid commands, users can now write longer, more nuanced prompts that explain what they want in detail. Spotify’s AI then interprets that request, cross-references it with the user’s listening history and broader music trends, and generates a tailored playlist.
In a demonstration for reporters, Spotify showed how far this can go. One example prompt read: “Find me one artist I haven’t listened to yet, but would probably love, or an artist I’ve only heard one or two songs from, and introduce me to them. Build a playlist of songs that’ll give me an overview of their catalog so it feels like I’m getting to know them. Put the songs you think I’ll like the most in the top five spots.” From that single, detailed request, the system assembled a playlist that both introduced a new artist and sequenced tracks to highlight the songs the listener was most likely to enjoy first.
J.J. Italiano, Spotify’s Head of Global Music Curation and Discovery, frames Prompted Playlists as a way to democratize playlist-making. His team is responsible for some of Spotify’s most influential editorial playlists, including Today’s Top Hits, New Music Friday, and RapCaviar. Now, he says, the goal is to give everyday listeners access to a similar creative process without requiring insider knowledge.
For many people, he notes, music curation is not a job or even a hobby. Building the perfect playlist for every mood, event, or commute can be time-consuming and intimidating. Prompted Playlists is meant to remove that friction. Listeners no longer need to know specific genres, release eras, or industry jargon. They can simply describe what they are feeling or what they are doing, in their own words, and let the AI handle the rest.
Spotify says the underlying AI analyzes the “world of music” in real time, taking into account trends, charts, culture, and history. It also draws on the user’s entire listening history on the service, not just recent activity. That long-term view allows the system to understand how a listener’s tastes have evolved and to balance familiarity with discovery.
By default, playlists generated through Prompted Playlists are personalized to the individual who created them. However, Spotify is also positioning the feature as a way to break out of listening ruts. Users can explicitly instruct the AI to ignore their listening history or to prioritize songs and artists they have never heard before. In practice, that means someone who has spent years listening to the same handful of genres can ask the system to surprise them with something completely different, without needing to know where to start.
Crucially, prompts do not need to include any musical terminology at all. A user might ask for “a playlist that feels like driving through a city at night in the rain,” “songs that match the energy of my favorite sci-fi show,” or “music for a cozy Sunday morning when I’m cooking.” The AI is trained to interpret these kinds of cultural and emotional cues and translate them into musical selections.
Spotify is also betting that the prompts themselves will become a new kind of creative object. Because prompts can be shared, users will be able to send their instructions to friends or post them publicly. Each person who uses the same prompt will get a different playlist, personalized to their own history and preferences, but the underlying idea will be shared. That opens the door to a new type of creator: people who specialize not in hand-picking tracks, but in crafting clever, evocative prompts that others want to try.
Once a playlist is generated, listeners can still edit it as they would any other playlist on Spotify. They can remove tracks, reorder songs, or add new ones. In that sense, Prompted Playlists acts as a starting point or creative assistant rather than a locked, AI-only product.
Spotify describes Prompted Playlists as the “next evolution” of its earlier AI playlist feature. The company says the new system is more attuned to real-time music trends and cultural shifts, better understands the full arc of a user’s listening behavior, and offers more granular control over the outcome. Despite that, the older AI playlist tool is not being retired. Both products will coexist, at least for now, which may create some confusion for users who are unsure which AI feature to use for which purpose.
Prompted Playlists remains in beta, and Spotify is imposing some usage limits while it refines the experience. Those limits may change as the company gathers more data on how people use the tool. For the moment, the feature is only available in English, even in non-English-speaking regions where it may eventually launch.
Spotify has not committed to a timeline for a broader global rollout. The company says it wants to observe how listeners in the U.S., Canada, and earlier test markets engage with Prompted Playlists before expanding further. That includes understanding what kinds of prompts people naturally write, how often they return to AI-generated playlists, and whether the feature changes long-term listening habits.
The launch of Prompted Playlists fits into a larger trend across the music and tech industries, where AI is increasingly being used to personalize experiences and reduce the effort required from users. For Spotify, which has long leaned on algorithmic recommendations through features like Discover Weekly and Release Radar, this is a logical extension: instead of passively receiving suggestions, listeners can now actively steer the algorithm with plain-language requests.
At the same time, the move raises familiar questions about the balance between human curation and machine-driven discovery. Spotify’s editorial teams still play a central role in shaping what breaks through on the platform, but tools like Prompted Playlists shift more of the day-to-day decision-making to algorithms guided by user intent. For many listeners, that may be a welcome trade-off: less time spent searching and sorting, more time spent simply listening.
For now, Prompted Playlists is another sign that Spotify sees AI not just as a behind-the-scenes recommendation engine, but as a front-and-center feature that reshapes how people think about making playlists. If you can describe a feeling, the company suggests, you can now turn it into a soundtrack.
