AI features in music streaming services have divided music fans like the Red Sea, and I’ve found myself torn between which features are good and which ones are bad, especially when it comes to Spotify’s AI DJ.
Spotify launched this feature back in 2023, describing it as a ‘personalized AI guide that knows you and your music taste so well that it can choose what to play for you’. When you press play on your DJ, it will start a listening session in the style of a radio show with a voiceover separating each segment
Initially, I can’t say I was entirely pleased with the experience. I think it’s the voice that pushed me over the edge. That combined with its repetitive music suggestions, I never returned to it, but that’s recently changed.
Like greeting a old friend
One of the biggest setbacks of the standard AI DJ was my experience with repeated songs and genres. But it’s been a while since I first used it, and I’ve listened to a lot more music since then, which I’ve learned is the trick to unlocking its full potential.
With that said, I think that AI DJ works better if you’re really into your music and listen to different genres and artists daily. That way, AI DJ will pick up on your varied listening habits and will know to offer you something different each time. But Spotify has recently come up with a solution that puts you in the driver's seat.
The only DJ who likes to take requests
For the past two years, AI DJ's capabilities have remained stagnant. Until this year, when Spotify rolled out DJ’s new request function, which marked its first major change. This means that users can have more input with DJ’s playback and can use voice prompts to ask for specific music. I had to give it a go.
The first time I tried it out, I asked the DJ, "Play melancholy '90s featuring Radiohead and friends," and it kicked things off with No Surprises, followed by Fontaines DC’s I Love You. From my first prompt, AI DJ showed that it can match moods on the spot, but could be a little more precise when matching time periods. However, this wasn’t a huge issue, as it followed through with The Verve, Bjork, and Mazzy Star as the request segment progressed.
During my second attempt, I took the opportunity to use AI DJ to discover new artists from one of my favorite genres, asking it to "Play some underground disco from the 70s and 80s." This one didn’t disappoint.
Instead of the classic disco tracks that everyone knows and loves, AI DJ inundated my listening session with artists and songs that I never would’ve come across had I not requested it. As well as Spotify’s Release Radar and New Music Friday playlists, I’ll definitely be returning to AI DJ’s request function to see what new artists it has in store for me.
A few setbacks, but I’m not done yet
Nothing is ever perfect when it comes to Spotify, and even AI DJ’s request feature has its setbacks, but nothing major.
One of the first things I noticed was that this new function isn’t compatible with my smart speaker (I use an Echo Pop), which I rely on constantly for my listening sessions. However, I can’t speak for other smart speaker models. It’s also not ideal if you’re a serial song skipper, as a request segment ends after 20 songs, which I tested three times, so I wouldn’t recommend using it if this is a habit of yours.
When I look back on my return to AI DJ, I had quite a pleasant experience and felt that I had more control over what I wanted to hear, and even after I experimented with voice requests, I found myself revisiting AI DJ in its original form. While Daylist is still my supreme AI tool in Spotify, AI DJ has become a new favorite.
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