Spotify, like nearly every company in the world, is dabbling in AI. The music platform has an AI-powered DJ and now an AI Playlist generator, and it has has awoken something chaotic in me.
According to Spotify, this new feature is all about “fuelling discovery and music curation,” but they forgot one important factor: it can cause me to be completely chaotic and forget about the world around me.
This playlist creator is pretty straightforward to use. You can find it under the ‘+’ sign in your library, where you would normally create a playlist or a folder.
I was given access to the beta version of the AI Playlist, and boy, did I have some fun.
To use the playlist generator, you tell it what you want to hear and give it suggestions. You can ask for anything, but unfortunately, it does have some boundaries.
As you can see below, when I typed in I wanted to “commit a crime” or “my husband found out I had an affair”, Spotify immediately shut me down. See below for its sensible and not-at-all-chaotic responses.
Nevertheless, she persisted
I was not going to let this AI bot create some boring AF playlist for me, I wanted chaos dammit!
I decided to start easy, I told Spotify that I wanted to “relive my year 7 prom” and the results were somewhat concerning and laughable.
Most of the songs were released around 2016 like The Weeknd’s Starboy and Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do, my personal favourite from this playlist is Luther Vandross’ Dance With My Father… an odd choice but we are in beta mode.
Also, I would like to point out that in 2016, I was 23 years old, so I was not at all close to year 7.
To refine this playlist and add fuel to the fire, I asked Spotify to “add songs a divorced dad would love,” and it stumped the poor thing. A small hurdle, so I asked for Yacht Rock, an essential for every divorced dad. Naturally, I got some AC/DC, Daryl Hall & John Oates and The Police.
For fun, I also asked for songs to cry in the shower to. Cue Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish and boygenius.
I did something bad (read: chaotic)
To really turn up the chaos to 10,000 per cent, I decided to get my equally chaotic colleagues involved, and hooboy, did they deliver. One said I should ask for “nepo baby pop” and “2014 Tumblr golden era.”
For “nepo baby pop,” Spotify was a tad confused and just gave me 2015/2016 hits. But for the 2014 Tumblr golden era, we got some Phantogram, Walk The Moon, Big Data, and Joywave.
I was a tad disappointed. I was hoping for Lorde, Haim, or The 1975.
One colleague suggested, “A guy who has only ever heard the song ‘Take it Easy’ by the Eagles, so he compares everything to ‘Take it Easy’ by The Eagles.” All Spotify gave me was All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix.
Another suggested “bubblegum pop songs that Trent Reznor might secretly enjoy,” but when I asked for five songs, Spotify shut that down and said what songs I might enjoy. Spotify, I appreciate you asking about my feelings, but those have been buried for years!
So I changed it to add five Trent Reznor songs, which ended up being Driver Down, and that’s it. Only one Trent Reznor song. It only gives me 29 songs, no more, no less.
I would like to point out I was given many, many suggestions from my co-workers, but alas, a lot of these ideas were deranged and sadly not fit to publish.
AI, I’m makin’ a playlist here!
This is a very fun and chaotic feature that I highly recommend you test out whenever you’re in a silly, goofy mood.
This AI Playlist creator is currently in beta mode, and Aussies are able to access the feature now. So put your chaotic energy to good use through this AI playlist builder.
Anyway, if you want to listen to this playlist (no judgement), listen to it here.*
Image: Spotify/NBC Universal
*Please note you have been warned on how silly this playlist is.