Spotify’s AI DJ now takes music requests

In early 2023, Spotify launched DJ, an fascinating function that leveraged a text-to-speech LLM to ship… conventional radio, just about.

Now, Spotify has introduced that, very like conventional radio, DJ also can take requests.

Hey, Mr. DJ

Snark apart, the thought for DJ is fairly cool. The extremely convincing-sounding AI was skilled on the voice of Xavier “X” Jernigan, Spotify’s Head of Cultural Partnerships (who has an important voice for the duty, by the way in which). It “picks” the tunes it thinks the person is likely to be within the temper to listen to.

Often, DJ X will present up between songs to make contextually becoming feedback based mostly on the person’s listening historical past, which customers seem to get pleasure from.

In accordance with Spotify, DJ engagement almost doubled over the previous 12 months, so it determined to take it one step additional and add a layer of real-time interplay to the combination.

Now, customers can immediate DJ X for particular songs, artists, or mood-based playlists. Right here’s Spotify:

DJ can deal with a mix of style, temper, artist, or activity-related requests. For instance, you can strive, “Shock me with some indie tracks I’ve by no means heard earlier than,” or “Give me some digital beats for a noon run.” You would even request one thing like, “Play me some cry-in-the-car songs.

This interactive model of DJ is rolling out in English for Spotify Premium customers within the international locations and areas the place DJ is on the market. It may be discovered by looking for DJ within the search subject, after which urgent and holding the DJ button to speak.

Alas, Spotify warns that whereas DJ can be utilized to manage music playback, it doesn’t work (but?) with audiobooks and podcasts. The corporate defined that its AI remains to be in beta, and was skilled to supply outcomes for music-related requests solely.