How Spotify Uses AI: Case Study

In one of their latest announcements , Spotify released a beta version of an AI playlist that can fine-tune music for premium subscribers based on their ideas. For example: "I'm going to have breakfast in bed, give me some indie folk to warm up my sleepy brain."

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This is the result of more than 10 years of consistent investments by Spotify in artificial intelligence technologies:

• 2013: Acquired Tunigo (improving music recommendation algorithms);
• 2014: Acquired Echo Nest (working on music intelligence);
• 2015: Acquired Seed Scientific (data science);
• 2017: Acquired Sonalytic (audio detection and machine learning-based recommendations);
• Also in 2017: Acquired Niland (optimizing search and recommendations);
• 2018: Launched the regular "Machine Learning Day" event for AI researchers;
• 2022: Acquired Sonantic (text-to-speech generation).

Let's dive into the Spotify AI case and see what lessons can be learned from how Spotify uses its AI technologies today!

Spotify AI DJ

The top AI feature in terms of popularity among Spotify users is AI DJ. It creates playlists and selects tracks based on your personal behavior, musical tastes, and preferences. AI DJ can respond in real time to feedback, allowing for even more flexible and personalized playlist adjustments to match your requests and expectations.

Thanks to generative AI, the DJ can voice and comment on selections with the hyperrealistic, charismatic voice of Xavier "X" Jernigan, Spotify's head of cultural partnerships. The AI voice model was specially trained in Xavier's speech mannerisms, slang, and intonations.?

Spotify Wrapped

Another popular AI-based feature in Spotify is the annual Spotify Wrapped. It provides an individual summary of a user's listening habits throughout the year. The statistics include total listening time in minutes, favorite genres, artists, albums, tracks, and podcasts.

A useful seasonal AI feature, Spotify Wrapped offers users the top 100 of their favorite songs from the past year and encourages sharing their list on social media. Notably, the feature is very visually appealing and well-presented, increasing engagement and serving as an effective promotion tool for the service.

Discover Weekly

Another seasonal AI algorithm-based feature from Spotify is Discover Weekly. Based on listening history and "likes," every Monday the AI creates a personalized playlist of 30 tracks for the user, compiled based on their tastes and preferences.

Unlike Wrapped, this feature aims to introduce users to new artists and music genres, helping them make new discoveries and broaden their horizons. Like a lookalike search but more flexible, Discover Weekly quickly gained popularity among Spotify users.

Unique Daily Mixes

The next innovative AI feature from Spotify worth mentioning is the so-called individual "daily mixes." The machine algorithm generates three playlists a day for the user, giving them quirky, highly specific names. Senior Product Director at Spotify, Molly Holder, characterizes them as "dynamic, playful, and hyper-personalized," and "reflecting the uniqueness of the user's audio personality."

The naming used in this AI feature is based on hundreds of descriptors related to the user's preferred genres, themes, moods, and other behavioral factors. This creation of Spotify's team of music and data analysis experts has become a real hit, creating a buzz and significant response on social media, increasing the platform's recognition and popularity.

AI Recommendations

According to the company’s data , Spotify's machine learning AI models, whose secrets are yet to be shared, process about half a trillion different signals and events daily. The AI then uses this data to create high-quality hyper-personalized audio recommendations for users. The recommendations include music, artists, genres, podcasts, and other content that the AI believes the user will like.

Spotify is far from the only platform for streaming audio, podcasts, and audiobooks. But what truly sets it apart and gives it a huge competitive advantage are its outstanding AI-based features, which easily find the audio you need and make you use Spotify more and more.

AI-Powered Podcast Voice Translation

In 2023, Spotify introduced a new AI-powered podcast voice translation feature. This is not just a translation: using OpenAI Whisper technology, the AI literally clones the host's voice with all its individual intonations, mannerisms, and speech characteristics! Just imagine: you can easily expand your podcast audience to languages you don't even know, thanks to voice replication technology.

This technology gives some chills at the thought of its potential misuse, but nonetheless, it is our reality now. The first podcasters whose voices were used by Spotify for language translations (into French, German, and Spanish from English) are well-known hosts Lex Fridman and Dax Shepard.

Natural Language Search

Previously, Spotify's keyword search required exact word and phrase matches, often failing to provide the quality results users desired. The use of deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies by AI allowed Spotify to understand semantic relationships, paraphrases, synonyms, and even mistakes or typos.

The new approach ensured an evolution in content navigation and search. It became much easier and more convenient for users to find the music they need, even if they don't know the exact song or podcast titles.

Conclusions

Spotify has been investing in its own AI technology development for years, and now we see their efforts paying off handsomely. It's impossible to imagine Spotify today without its powerful AI-based features. These include AI DJ, seasonal playlists, recommendations, voice translation, and much more, which significantly distinguish the platform from all its competitors.

AI increases the service's popularity and recognition, enhances user engagement, and elevates personalization to a whole new level; it helps develop musical tastes and horizons, promotes podcasts more effectively, and provides many other unique opportunities.

Perhaps it is thanks to these 10-year investments in AI that Spotify now maintains its position as the most popular streaming audio service in the world, with 574 million loyal, active users in more than 180 countries.

Whether you use Spotify or not, their AI technology use case is a striking example of how important it is for any company or brand to develop its AI capabilities to stay competitive in a world where AI is gradually taking over...