Spotify Wrapped and its customized yearly listening recaps are here, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of AI packed into the 2024 release.
Wrapped launches today in the Spotify mobile app (iOS and Android). You can find it by selecting “Wrapped” on your home feed or by searching for it. If you don’t see it, make sure your Spotify app is updated to the latest version.
(Credit: Spotify)
This year’s biggest update is a personalized podcast overview powered by Google’s NotebookLM. Two “AI hosts” spin up the data from your Spotify Wrapped into a brief discussion (about three to six minutes), Spotify told PCMag in a media briefing.
It’s available in English for eligible Free and Premium users for a limited time across the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Sweden, Spotify says.
NotebookLM is one of the most fun and unique AI products to launch this year (we used it to turn a diary into a podcast), though most people probably haven’t tried it out yet. Integrating with Spotify will give millions of music listeners their first taste of this highly personal tech. Spotify users can also share their AI podcasts with friends.
Steven Johnson, head of editorial at Google Labs, explains the NotebookLM integration. (Credit: Spotify/Emily Forlini)
The hosts will likely be the same female and male voice NotebookLM has featured to date. Google plans to introduce new AI voices in 2025, says Steven Johnson, head of editorial at Google Labs.
Google engineers built a customized version of its Gemini Flash AI model to scale up the tech for Spotify. “We’ve learned a lot and some techniques we’re able to bring back to NotebookLM,” Johnson says. “It was quite an impressive engineering effort.”
We can expect more NotebookLM partnerships to crop up in other brands next year. Google is exploring more opportunities “both on the audio front, and the tech front.”
(Credit: Spotify)
Spotify also added its own audio overview for AI DJ listeners, which debuted in 2023 for Premium subscribers. This feature offers a curated playlist to help users discover new music. The AI DJ Wrapped stats will show you things like how long you spent listening to the DJ and the types of music you explored.
Xavier, the voice of Spotify’s AI DJ, right, with two Spotify employees. (Credit: Spotify/Emily Forlini)
The voice of the AI DJ, Xavier, made his public debut at the briefing. “Having the AI voice sound human is crucial for humans to foster a deeper connection with the DJ,” Xavier says. “I get marriage invitations all the time. Hey, ma!”
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Also new in Wrapped for Premium subscribers this year is a prompt-based AI playlist. You can tell Spotify to make a custom selection of songs based on your Wrapped playlist, such as, “Give me a new playlist based on the top 3 songs.”
(Credit: Spotify)
Spotify also added new types of data to the core Wrapped product. One is “your music evolution,” which charts how your “tastes and moods changed throughout the year,” Spotify says. It will include up to three musical phases, tagged with a descriptor and the most-listened-to genres and artists. Spotify will also create a playlist to highlight your music evolution.
You will also get to see music and podcast clips from your top artists and podcasters. One new stat, “longest listening streak,” will show the artist you listened to on repeat during the year.
Finally, expect to see lots of Wrapped stories on TikTok. In November, Spotify integrated more deeply with the social video app, so people can now share their yearly results on the TikTok “For You” page and Stories.
(Credit: Spotify)
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