Music streaming giant Spotify has released a ‘DJ’, a new feature which works as your AI-backed personalised guide that can recommend the right song based on your music preferences. Currently, in its testing phase, the feature will offer a tailored lineup of music and commentary of the tracks and artists in a ‘realistic’ voice. 

‘DJ’ is a product of Generative AI. It is built on the same OpenAI technology as the chatbot ‘ChatGPT‘.

The new DJ feature will go through new and old music, suggesting songs tailored to your taste and revamping the selection based on your feedback. You can move to the next song if you don’t like the current selection with the DJ button. The more you use it, the better it becomes at providing personalised recommendations, making it similar to Spotify’s personalisation feature but as an “AI DJ in your pocket”.

“We put this in the hands of our music editors to provide you with insightful facts about the music, artists, or genres you’re listening to. With this generative AI tooling, our editors are able to scale their innate knowledge in ways never before possible,” the blog post stated. 

Along with its personalised technology based on your preferences, Spotify also has an AI voice engine from its acquisition of voice AI company Sonantic that creates realistic voices from text.

Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships Xavier “X” Jernigan’s voice is the first model for the DJ. X hosted Spotify’s first—and personalised—morning show, ‘The Get Up’ which was a success. 

Delayed, But Not Forgotten

Back in 2021, Spotify announced that it would be launching a new streaming tier called HiFi to provide lossless, CD-quality audio. The introduction was also promoted with a video featuring singers Billie Eilish and Finneas and it was expected to be available by the end of 2021. However, two years later, HiFi is yet to be launched and Spotify has remained mum on the matter, despite repeated inquiries. 

Although Spotify was one of the tech giants to join the likes of Google, Meta in laying off about  600 employees, i.e., 6% of its workforce, as per its earning report, its paid subscriber base rose by 14%, i.e, 205 million.