Spotify’s AI DJ now takes music requests

In early 2023, Spotify launched DJ, an interesting feature that leveraged a text-to-speech LLM to deliver… traditional radio, pretty much.

Now, Spotify has announced that, much like traditional radio, DJ can also take requests.

Hey, Mr. DJ

Snark aside, the idea for DJ is pretty cool. The incredibly convincing-sounding AI was trained on the voice of Xavier “X” Jernigan, Spotify’s Head of Cultural Partnerships (who has a great voice for the task, by the way). It “picks” the tunes it thinks the user might be in the mood to hear.

Occasionally, DJ X will show up between songs to make contextually fitting comments based on the user’s listening history, which users appear to enjoy.

According to Spotify, DJ engagement nearly doubled over the past year, so it decided to take it one step further and add a layer of real-time interaction to the mix.

Now, users can prompt DJ X for specific songs, artists, or mood-based playlists. Here’s Spotify:

DJ can handle a combination of genre, mood, artist, or activity-related requests. For example, you could try, “Surprise me with some indie tracks I’ve never heard before,” or “Give me some electronic beats for a midday run.” You could even request something like, “Play me some cry-in-the-car songs.

This interactive version of DJ is rolling out in English for Spotify Premium users in the countries and regions where DJ is available. It can be found by searching for DJ in the search field, and then pressing and holding the DJ button to talk.

Alas, Spotify warns that while DJ can be used to control music playback, it doesn’t work (yet?) with audiobooks and podcasts. The company explained that its AI is still in beta, and was trained to produce results for music-related requests only.