Spotify launches AI-powered Q&A and Personal Podcasts to transform how users engage with audio

Spotify adds AI-powered Q&A and briefing generation features to podcasts

For users, Spotify has been a place to consume podcasts made by other creators. The company wants to change that by introducing a personal podcast feature, which uses AI to generate podcasts for users based on an idea or a custom prompt. Earlier this month, the company released a GitHub-based command-line tool for Claude Code and Codex that allows users to create a podcast and save it to their own Spotify library. The company said that, soon, users would be able to create podcasts directly within the Spotify app. They can also schedule them to create daily or weekly briefs for topics they have a recurring interest in. Plus, they can also create one-off podcasts to understand a topic. Users can make a request like "Share my daily city updates, and tell me about local concerts from artists I love," or "Help me understand economics in five minutes," to create a podcast and have it saved to the library for personal consumption. What's more, users can add links, PDFs, and text, and choose a custom voice to generate podcasts. The company is taking a leaf out of NotebookLM, ElevenLabs reader, and former NotebookLM devs' app Huxe to create personal podcasts on any topic. Spotify also released a dedicated desktop app called Studio by Spotify Labs, which can connection wth users' email and calendar to create personalized briefings. In addition, the company is rolling out an AI-powered Q&A feature for Premium mobile users in the U.S., Sweden, and Ireland today. With this, users can ask questions about the episode they are listening to or a concept mentioned in the podcast to get answers. They can also ask for podcast recommendations on specific topics. The new addition comes after the company released a prompt-based feature to create podcast playlists in April. Until now, Spotify has been pushing people to consume more video podcasts. The company said that users who streamed a video podcast were up 50% year-on-year. With this release, Spotify wants users to engage more with the app by asking questions about a podcast, which is akin to Ask YouTube, released by Google earlier in the week, and creating their own interest-based podcasts. For podcast makers, Spotify is making its creator sponsorship tool available to manage brand partnerships. Plus, it is also adding a way for creators to charge a subscription to unlock exclusive content and experiences. Social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snap already offer a similar product to content creators.

Spotify is adding more AI gunk for podcasts and audiobooks - Engadget

Premium users in the US will soon be able to generate personal podcasts that explain certain topics and provide daily briefings. Spotify held its latest investor day event on Thursday. Among other things, it had some updates to share regarding podcasts and audiobooks. Of course, many of these concerned generative AI features. For one thing, Spotify says you'll be able to ask a chatbot questions about a podcast episode you're listening to in order to get clarification, more context or recommendations related to a host or guest. Premium users in the US, Sweden and Ireland are the first to get access to this feature starting today. The company is fairly transparent about why it's adding this feature. It says you'll be able to "delve deeper without leaving Spotify." That fits in with other tech companies trying to construct walled gardens around their ecosystems to discourage you from going anywhere else on the internet to get information, as Google is blatantly attempting with its AI-powered Search. Spotify is also expanding a feature that enables users to generate "personal podcasts." It announced this tool last month with the option to use AI agents like OpenClaw and Claude Code to whip up such synthetic audio. The company says it's adding a way for users to generate personal podcasts directly within Spotify. It notes that, after you enter a prompt, it will generate audio that draws from factors like your Spotify taste profile and world knowledge. You can also feed in text, PDFs and links to give the tool more context for what you'd like to hear about. (A new desktop app called Studio by Spotify Labs ties into that). These podcasts can focus on things like explainers on a certain topic, daily briefings or updates on local concerts featuring artists you're into. These audio episodes are saved in your library privately, and you can set up the app to generate episodes daily or weekly. Spotify says eligible Premium users in the US will get access to personal podcasts next month. The company added that users will receive a set number of credits each month as part of their subscription, so there's a limit on how many personal podcasts you'll be able to generate without paying extra. Inevitably, you can buy more credits if you desire.

Spotify's huge new podcast makeover means you can now ask in-depth questions about the episodes you're listening to, which sounds great -- but the new 'generated' Personal Podcast feature will be more controversial...

* Spotify is upgrading podcasts with two AI-powered features * One is a new search function that allows you to ask questions about episodes * There's also the new Personal Podcasts tool, which generates a short audio briefing based on your prompts Spotify has used its Investor Day event to announce some new features for podcast listeners -- and they're quite big. The first of the new podcast features enables you to ask Spotify about the episode you're currently listening to or watching, and it will give you answers in real-time. For example, you could get more information about something mentioned in the episode that you may want to know more about, or ask to find more podcasts that cover the same topic. From the demonstration images, it shows the user tapping on the AI DJ search bar in the Spotify home page to launch the podcast episode, and then from there the user proceeds with questions. You can also ask generic questions such as 'play the latest episode from Dissect'. Rolling out to Premium mobile subscribers in the US, Sweden, and Ireland first, this new tool is part of Spotify's larger plan to expand its podcast interface. The company said: "This new capability makes the experience more dynamic, helping fans learn more and connect deeply with the topics, perspectives, and creators they care about." Now the controversial part... Additionally, Spotify wants you to start generating your own personal podcast episodes using AI, which builds on the platform's recent expansion of Prompted Playlists into podcasts. Rolling out to Premium subscribers in the US first, Personal Podcasts is another new tool that can be found among the roster of other playlist-making buttons when you tap the Create button in Spotify. Previously, you could create your own podcasts using platforms such as OpenClaw and Claude Code which you could then save to your Spotify library, so this new tool offers a more on-demand option directly within the platform. As you'd expect by its name, Personal Podcasts allow you to generate short audio episodes which Spotify says are "tailored to your interests and listening habits", and it works on a prompt basis. You can ask it to create a daily briefing to include local weather, any live music happening in your area, and daily news headlines across different topics which you can schedule to update every day or weekly. But Spotify doesn't draw the line there -- Personal Podcasts can also generate episodes that dive deeper into topics, connecting you with related podcast episodes for you to explore your curiosity further. As well as text prompts, you can add more context to your requests by attaching PDFs and website links, and the information should be pulled into the episode. There's a slight catch however. Just like Spotify's monthly audiobook listening hours allowance, the same applies to Personal Podcasts ,which come with a fixed allocation of credits to generate podcasts included with their subscription each month. If you find that you can't get enough of them, there's an option to purchase additional credits. The interesting thing about Spotify's new podcast upgrades is that nowhere in the company's announcement doesn't explicitly state how these features are powered, though it's quite clear that AI is the mastermind behind these generative tools. We think the streamer is onto something with tools to let you dive further into the shows you love the most and pull information from them, and allowing you to ask for more insights on topics that presenters maybe don't go into detail with. It's kind of amusing that Spotify recently added features in support of the anti-AI brigade by not only rolling out 'Verified by Spotify' badges for music artists to certify that they're real, it then did the same thing for podcasts only a few days ago -- and now it's offering AI-generated podcasts right from its own menus. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Spotify Introduces AI-Generated Personal Podcasts

'Beaches' Musical to Close After Being Shut Out of Tony Nominations As Spotify brings more AI capabilities to its platform, the company will soon let users generate their own podcasts. At the company's investor day Thursday, Spotify announced the addition of personal podcasts, which allow users to generate podcasts directly within Spotify based on their interests and listening habits. The creation follows a similar mechanism to the existing Prompted Playlists segment, in which users write a prompt into Spotify, which then generates audio based on the input. Spotify gives the example: "You can create a daily briefing, a deep dive on a topic you're curious about, or a weekly roundup of whatever's on your mind. Ask 'Share my daily city updates, and tell me about local concerts from artists I love' or 'Help me understand economics in five minutes,' and Spotify will create a tailored audio overview while linking you to relevant episodes, shows, and creators where you can explore more." Users can then schedule those podcasts to recur daily or weekly, with the option to choose a voice and add more context through additional text, PDFs or links. The episodes are only available to each individual through their library. Personal podcasts will roll out to eligible premium users in the U.S. starting next month, with a set number of monthly credits included, and the option to buy more. "We're entering the era of Generation, where the experience isn't just selected from a catalog. It's shaped by each of our users, in real time, around their taste, context, and intent ... Today, there is no media player for both public and private content - or put differently - there is no media player for the generative era. We believe Spotify will become that," Gustav Söderström, co-CEO of Spotify, said as part of the investor presentation. Additionally, Spotify unveiled creator sponsorships, as a way for podcast creators to earn recurring revenue directly from their most engaged fans on Spotify. In addition to these features, Spotify announced that it will reserve two concert tickets for dedicated fans who have Spotify Premium, before tickets go on sale, and will allow premium subscribers to make AI-generated covers and remixes of songs.