Spotify has teamed up with OpenAI’s large language model ChatGPT to provide more personalized music and podcast recommendations. Starting Monday (Oct. 6), Spotify Free and Premium users can integrate their account with ChatGPT and prompt the AI chatbot to help them find new songs, artists, albums, playlists or podcast episodes.
Importantly, this integration does not mean that Spotify is sharing any of its music, podcasts, lyrics or any other audio or video content on its platform with OpenAI for training purposes. Connecting Spotify to ChatGPT is available on an opt-in basis, and it can be connected or disconnected from the chat service at any time.
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Examples of ChatGPT prompts, provided by Spotify in its announcement, include: “Make a playlist with some Latin artists that are on my heavy rotation,” “Are there any podcasts you’d recommend if I want to go deeper into science and innovation?” and “I need something to keep me in the zone. Can you pull up a Focus Mix?”
The ChatGPT partnership follows a number of Spotify integrations with other consumer products like Alexa, Google Home, Volvo, Samsung, Sonos and more to meet Spotify listeners wherever they are. The ChatGPT integration is now live in English across 145 countries on both web and mobile (iOS and Android).
News of the ChatGPT partnership comes just two weeks after Spotify updated its policies to strengthen protections against what it calls the “worst” use cases of AI-generated music. While the streamer said it will target negative AI music use cases like spam and impersonation and work toward a standard for AI disclosure, the announcement did not show that the service is taking a hardline stance against all AI music. As Spotify’s head of music, Charlie Hellman, said in a press briefing at the time: “I want to be clear about one thing. We’re not here to punish artists for using AI authentically and responsibly. We hope that artists’ use of AI production tools will enable them to be more creative than ever, create more content that excites fans and offer the best possible experience on Spotify. But we are here to stop the bad actors who are gaming the system, and we can only benefit from [the] good side of AI if we aggressively protect against the downside.”
Spotify has also been busy launching a slew of other new updates to the platform in the last few months. This includes the addition of lossless audio for premium users, its “Mix With Spotify” feature and its reintroduction of the direct message feature.
“Spotify’s vision has always been to be everywhere you are,” said Sten Garmark, senior vp, global head of consumer experience at Spotify, in a statement. “By bringing Spotify into ChatGPT, we’re creating a powerful new way for fans to connect with the artists and creators they love conversationally, whenever inspiration strikes.”
A spokesperson for UMG added: “We’re supportive of these types of integrations as they offer a pathway for fans to connect with the artists they love as well as to move fluidly from discovery to enjoyment of new music — and all within a monetized ecosystem. While it just scratches the surface of the enormous potential of AI, it’s a positive step forward that reinforces the principle that artists must be compensated for all uses of their music on all platforms.”
