Artificial intelligence is all the rage these days. Every media streaming platform seems to be incorporating some form of AI into its design, whether it’s to promote new content or existing content it knows you like. This is no different with Spotify.
Spotify has recently added the DJX AI function to its platforms, and I believe there is still much work to be done to make it more successful. Currently, the function will put together short playlists of songs based on your current listening habits, which is very good.
It will pick out great hits from your playlists and artists you know you listen to frequently. But it will also try to recommend music it thinks you might like. This isn’t as good.
The algorithm has continually tried to recommend artists, songs, and genres I do not like or intend to listen to. This is something which needs to improve to make me want to use DJX more often.
But to be fair to Spotify and to the AI itself, this feature is still in its early days and may improve as time goes on. For instance, Spotify Wrapped has proven incredibly successful with subscribers since its launch in 2016.
This function looks at your listening habits over the year and puts together a colourful graphic showing your top artists, genres and songs. I personally love this feature because it brings back so much nostalgia to look back at my year in music and see how this has evolved and changed over time.
Clearly, this is also very successful with many other people too. The amount of Instagram stories I’ve seen with people revealing their 2024 ‘Wrapped’ is unbelievable.
This function has become so successful that many other streaming platforms have followed this trend with a similar feature. Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music have all developed their own versions of this.
However, the algorithm used for Spotify Wrapped only puts together a list of the music you have played the most. It’s not trying to suggest new songs to you.
I think AI and algorithms have become very good at identifying music; it knows what its users like, but this is about as far as it’s got. I think more development is needed to identify how to recommend new content to users without giving them music they aren’t interested in.
I feel this DJX feature could be the future to do this – and to be fair, it has started to do this a little bit. I have started to be recommended music by an artist I know I like, but I feel it could also suggest songs within a particular particular genre of music.
For now, at least, I will continue to make my own playlists, and this remains my favourite way of listening to music.