Spotify’s New Prompted Playlist Feature Provides More Control Over Your Listening Algorithm

Spotify on Wednesday announced a new feature that provides users with more control over the streaming service's algorithm. Dubbed Prompted Playlist, it is currently rolling out in beta to select global markets. As per the company, users can describe what they want to hear and set rules for the personalised playlists. Prompted Playlist is claimed to tap into the user's Spotify listening history from day one, and they can fine-tune the results by editing the prompt, or begin again with a new one.

Prompted Playlist on Spotify

With Spotify's Prompted Playlist feature, listeners can simply describe what they wish to hear, and it will analyse the user's listening history to curate a playlist based on their taste, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI).

For example, they can ask for “music from my top artists from the last five years,” and Spotify will generate a playlist, according to the music streaming service's newsroom post. Listeners can also fine-tune the playlist with further prompts like “and feature deep cuts I haven't heard yet” or “include music from this year's biggest films and most-talked-about TV shows that match my taste”.

There are preset prompts and English language algorithms, too, which will appear as personalised playlists on the Home page of the app.

Prompted Playlist is said to be an evolved version of the AI playlist feature, which was introduced in 2024. According to TechCrunch, what's different here is that listeners can provide longer prompts with more specific instructions. It also reportedly leverages world knowledge to refine the AI-made playlists.

Spotify said that Prompted Playlist also refreshes the playlist periodically, based on the updated listening patterns and world knowledge.  Alternatively, listeners can also set it to refresh daily or weekly for a fresher listening experience.

For each song, Spotify will also include a description and context as a reason for the recommendation. The company said that Prompted Playlist is currently in beta and available only in New Zealand in the English language. It will evolve before eventually making its way to other markets.