What do you think of Spotify playlists? Dedicated users will def have their faves from over the years, but now we’re living in a new Spotify era: that age of the AI-generated playlist.

Spotify started AI-generated playlists in response to music blowing up on TikTok via algorithms, and the aI landscape in general.

It started with Spotify algos making recommendations based on user interaction, and grew into an AI DJ and Daylist.

These two features are updated in real time, as you like, listen and add to playlists of your own.

The Spotify AI then works all of that info into your personal AI DJ.

This is leading to changes at Spotify, as music curators are being put out to pasture in favor of faster, more adoptive AI recommendations.

Ashlee Carmen at Bloomberg noted that “Last year, Spotify laid off members of the teams involved in making playlists as part of its various cuts. And over time, the shift in emphasis has had consequences outside the company as well.

 

These days, the same music industry sources who in the late 2010s learned to obsess over what was included and excluded from key Spotify playlists have started noticing something else — it no longer seems to matter as much.

 

Employees at different major labels say they’ve seen streams coming from RapCaviar drop anywhere from 30% to 50%.

 

Other music executives say they’ve observed a similar shift impacting the reach of songs from other big playlists with streams dropping off by over 50% in just a year. One label says their streams from a popular dance-oriented playlist called Dance Hits dropped by around 60% compared to the previous year. Streams from another one called Mint fell off by 40%.”

Which means … curated playlists are fading and AI-driven playlists are on the rise.