Spotify adds chat feature for Premium subscribers to control music with voice and text

Spotify is expanding its AI voice interface to allow Premium subscribers to chat with the service directly inside the app. Users can now interact through voice or text with commands like "Play some artists I haven't heard before," "make it more upbeat," or "just his recent stuff." In the playback view, the interface supports queries about songs, artists, podcasts, and audiobooks. The AI can also access personal listening history—for instance, a user can ask "When did I first listen to this song?"—and answer general knowledge questions such as "When was the Odyssey written?" Spotify acknowledges that while simple questions should work well, more complex topics could trigger hallucinations (factually incorrect responses). This conversational feature launches in beta for Premium subscribers 18 and older in the US, Ireland, and Sweden. The rollout builds on Spotify's earlier introduction of AI playlists, which let users generate personalized playlists from text prompts. Beyond these conversational and playlist tools, Spotify is also becoming a platform for AI-generated content: through a partnership with ElevenLabs, authors can publish audiobooks narrated by AI-generated voices. At the same time, the platform is grappling with a surge of AI-generated songs, some of which are artificially amplified through bot activity. The new conversational feature represents Spotify's effort to deepen engagement with Premium subscribers by offering a more intuitive, natural-language interface to music discovery and control.

Spotify's conversational AI feature represents a natural extension of its existing AI playlist tool, positioning the platform as a destination where users interact with music discovery and search through natural language rather than traditional navigation. The company's announcement focuses on conversational control in the playback view, aligning with how many users already engage with voice assistants in other apps. However, Spotify faces a balancing act: while it is promoting AI-generated content (such as AI-voiced audiobooks through ElevenLabs), it is simultaneously combating an influx of artificially boosted AI-generated songs on the platform. This tension—between enabling creators to use AI tools and protecting the integrity of the listening experience from low-quality or spam content—underpins the company's broader AI strategy.