AI features are expanding into all kinds of applications, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a service that doesn’t include AI. Recently, AI playlists have become increasingly popular in music apps, and it is likely that we will see Apple adopt this trend in the near future.
YouTube
This week, YouTube Music started rolling out a new AI playlist feature. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers can turn an idea, mood or genre into a personalized playlist.
In the Library section of the YouTube Music app, there is an AI playlist creation option where you can request or enter any genre, artist, feel, phrase or other suggestion to get your own playlist suggestion.
Spotify
In January, Spotify began an extended test of its “Prompted Playlist” feature, which uses AI to generate music suggestions based on a text request.
Spotify Premium users can describe what they want to hear, and AI looks at listening history, current trends and charts to make song suggestions that fit the parameters. AI playlists are refreshed and updated as listening patterns change.
Spotify says users can request things like “music from my top artists of the last five years” and then expand on that with a follow-up request like “and include deep cuts I’ve never heard before.” Requests can also be specific to activities and time periods, such as “high-energy pop and hip-hop for a 30-minute 5K run that maintains a steady pace before transitioning to relaxing cool-down songs.”
AI playlists from Spotify can be tweaked with quick edits and set to refresh with new music daily or weekly.
Spotify’s Requested Playlists is an extension of the previous playlist generation feature that allows users to request songs based on mood and activity. Invited playlists can be much more specific and detailed.
Amazon Music
As of 2024, Amazon’s music service offers “Maestro,” a feature that allows users to create playlists using text prompts and emoji characters. It’s very similar to YouTube and Spotify, with Amazon describing it as a feature that helps users create any playlist they can think of.
Apple Music Rumors
Apple has been using AI to generate custom “For You” playlists for Apple Music users for years, but there’s no way to issue a prompt and get a customized playlist in response.
Last year, BloombergMark Gurman said that Apple is working on an AI-focused reboot of Apple Music. We get a new AutoMix feature that transitions between songs more smoothly and updated lyrics translation features, but no ability to generate AI playlists and no Apple Intelligence specific features.
More Apple apps are expected to adopt Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27, so it’s possible we’ll get new AI Apple Music features. Apple is now one of the few major streaming music services that doesn’t offer rapid AI-powered playlist creation.
Meanwhile, there is an option to generate Apple Music playlists using ChatGPT. ChatGPT can integrate with Apple Music so it can create music recommendations and playlists based on user prompts. ChatGPT can search the Apple Music catalog, but does not have access to listening history, which limits the customization of any playlist suggestions. Playlists must also be manually added to “Apple Music”.
A native AI playlist feature in Apple Music would be much more similar to what Spotify and YouTube offer.