In its ongoing bid to compete with music streaming giants like Spotify, YouTube Music is testing a new AI-powered playlist feature that promises to personalize your listening experience like never before. Following the introduction of a “you sing it, we’ll play it” audio recognition system, YouTube Music’s latest innovation will create custom, personalized radio stations based on user prompts.
Once the feature is available on your account, you will notice a new card in your Home feed labeled “Ask for music any way you like.” Selecting this option will open a chat window where you can enter a prompt either by typing or speaking. Suggested prompts include “catchy pop choruses,” “epic soundtracks,” “upbeat pop anthems,” and even “surprise me.” This new feature allows users to request music that fits their specific moods or preferences.
The move is a significant step for YouTube Music, which aims to leverage AI technology to enhance user experience and compete with established services like Spotify. 9to5Google has shared images of the prompt-generated radio feature in action, showcasing how it can respond to requests such as “Queer hip-hop beats” by creating a playlist titled “rhymes and flows from the heart, a celebration of queer pride in hip hop’s art.” However, the AI’s accuracy is still a work in progress, as evidenced by the inclusion of a RuPaul dance track that is more house than hip-hop.
Currently, this experimental feature is not widely available. 9to5Google noted that it found references to the feature in a single Reddit thread, with no widespread reports of it appearing in other users’ accounts. This limited testing suggests that a broader rollout may still be some time away. Nevertheless, the feature’s potential could make it a significant addition in the battle for supremacy among the best music streaming services.
Music streaming differs from TV or movie streaming in that most services offer a similar catalog of songs, meaning they must differentiate themselves through other means. While price is a factor, features like spatial audio, lossless or hi-res audio, and especially discovery and personalization are crucial. Spotify has long been praised for its discovery and recommendation algorithms, and YouTube Music’s AI experiments are clearly designed to challenge that dominance.
As YouTube Music continues to explore the capabilities of AI, this new feature represents an exciting development in the world of music streaming. By offering users the ability to create personalized radio stations with just a simple prompt, YouTube Music is taking a bold step towards enhancing the way we discover and enjoy music.
