TORONTO — Spotify says it is expanding a new AI-assisted feature called “Prompted Playlist” to Premium subscribers in Canada, allowing listeners to describe—using their own words—the exact mood, moment or rules they want a playlist to follow, in a move the company frames as giving users more direct control over how its recommendation system works.
The feature, which Spotify says began testing with Premium listeners in New Zealand in December 2025, generates playlists based on a written prompt plus a listener’s full Spotify history and real-time signals such as music trends, charts and cultural context. Spotify says the beta is starting in the United States and Canada and is expected to roll out to Premium users in both countries by the end of the month.
How “Prompted Playlist” works
Spotify describes Prompted Playlist as a collaborative tool: users set the “rules” in plain language, and Spotify assembles the track list. Prompts can be broad or highly specific, including instructions to surface emerging artists, dig into deeper cuts, include or exclude certain sounds, or build around a specific scenario. Spotify says prompts can be edited at any time or replaced entirely to push the algorithm in a new direction.
In Spotify’s description, the playlist generator draws on a user’s listening history “from when you first joined,” meaning the result is meant to reflect both current tastes and longer-term listening patterns. The company also says the system uses real-time information about the music world—including trends and charts—to shape results and help listeners discover new tracks alongside familiar favourites.
Spotify says each track in a Prompted Playlist includes a brief explanation of why it was selected, and that users can set playlists to refresh on a daily or weekly cadence. An “Ideas” option is designed to help people get started with suggestions, and Spotify says some example prompts may also appear on the Home screen.
- Where to find it: Spotify says users can tap “Create” and select “Prompted Playlist.”
- How to steer it: Write a prompt describing the vibe, scenario, or constraints you want.
- How it stays fresh: Spotify says playlists can refresh daily or weekly, and prompts can be edited anytime.
Spotify’s pitch: a less intimidating way to build playlists
Spotify says the new feature is aimed at listeners who like playlists but don’t always want to build them track-by-track. “We hear from listeners all the time that they love playlists, but making their own can feel daunting,” said Sulinna Ong, Spotify’s global head of editorial, in the company’s announcement.
The company says early beta testers have used prompts to revisit music tied to specific memories while filtering out songs they’ve recently overplayed, and to request long, lyric-free electronic playlists for focus. Spotify has also highlighted prompts that weave in references to TV, movies and other pop-culture moments, using the service’s broader context signals to guide the results.
Background: AI playlist experiments and “algorithm controls”
Prompted Playlist is the latest in a series of Spotify experiments that lean into AI-assisted discovery. A report published during the New Zealand test rollout said Spotify had already tried AI-generated playlists, and positioned Prompted Playlist as distinct in how much detail it accepts in prompts, how deeply it reaches into listening history, and how it offers ongoing updating and fine-tuning.
The same report said Prompted Playlist would exist alongside other playlist-creation tools, rather than replacing them, and described the feature as a way to shape how recommendations respond—an approach that mirrors a broader shift across major platforms toward offering users more explicit ways to tune algorithmic feeds.
What happens next
Spotify says Prompted Playlist is rolling out in beta and will reach Premium users in the U.S. and Canada by the end of the month, with some usage limits in place while the company tests and learns. Spotify also says it will continue improving the experience based on listener feedback, and that some aspects of the feature may evolve during the beta phase.
The launch also lands amid other product and business changes at Spotify. The company recently announced pricing updates for Premium subscriptions in the United States, Estonia and Latvia over the next month, saying it makes occasional pricing changes to reflect the value of the service and to support ongoing improvements. Spotify did not include Canada in that pricing update announcement.
For Canadian listeners, the immediate change is the promise of more hands-on control over music discovery—turning the familiar act of typing a prompt into a direct way to influence what the app serves next, and how quickly it can move between nostalgia, new releases and whatever “vibe” a user is trying to capture on a given day.
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Spotify rolls out AI Prompted Playlists to Premium in Canada
TORONTO — Spotify says it is expanding a new AI-powered feature, Prompted Playlist, to Premium subscribers in Canada and the United States, letting listeners type in what they want to hear—down to a mood, memory, scenario or cultural moment—and receive a playlist designed around that request.
The company describes the tool as a way to give people more direct control over how recommendations work, positioning it as a collaboration in which listeners set the direction and Spotify’s systems assemble the music. The feature began testing with Premium listeners in New Zealand in December 2025, Spotify said, and is now rolling out in beta to Canada and the U.S.
A playlist built from your prompt—and your listening history
Prompted Playlist starts with a text box. Listeners write a request in their own words—broad or specific—and Spotify generates a playlist from it. Spotify says the playlist is informed by a listener’s full Spotify listening history “from when you first joined,” along with real-time information about what’s happening in music, including trends, charts, culture and history.
Spotify’s examples suggest prompts can include instructions about what to prioritize and what to avoid. That can mean asking for emerging artists only, deeper cuts based on past favourites, or excluding certain genres or sounds. A prompt can also be framed around a moment—such as getting ready to go out, a slow Sunday morning, or a playlist shaped around what’s trending globally—while still being tailored to an individual listener’s taste.
Once a playlist is created, Spotify says listeners can change the prompt at any time to steer the playlist in a new direction, or start over with a fresh idea. The feature also includes options to refresh the playlist daily or weekly. Spotify says each song comes with a short explanation of why it was included.
- Where it shows up: Spotify says users can tap “Create” and select “Prompted Playlist.”
- How it’s guided: Write a prompt describing the vibe, scenario, or rules you want.
- How it can change: Edit the prompt, or set the playlist to refresh daily or weekly.
Why Spotify is leaning into “control of the algorithm”
Spotify is pitching Prompted Playlist as an easier on-ramp for people who love playlists but don’t want to build them track by track. In Spotify’s announcement, the company’s global head of editorial, Sulinna Ong, said listeners often find it daunting to make their own playlists from scratch and that the new tool aims to make that process more intuitive by letting people start with moods, moments or ideas in their own words.
The company also argues that the feature changes the relationship between listener and recommender system. Instead of simply accepting what the app serves, Spotify says users can define how discovery should work for them—whether they want fresher tracks, a specific balance of familiar artists and new ones, or playlists tied to a particular cultural reference point.
Spotify says early testers in New Zealand used prompts to bring back songs tied to specific moments while filtering out tracks they had recently overplayed. Others requested long, lyric-free electronic playlists for workdays, or asked for playlists that mix in artists connected to pop-culture moments and viral trends.
Background: how this differs from Spotify’s existing AI playlist tools
Spotify already offers an “AI Playlist” feature, and the company says that option will remain available alongside Prompted Playlist. The newer Prompted Playlist tool is presented as a more advanced version, allowing finer tuning and pulling from more information to shape results.
In practical terms, the difference is less about whether AI is involved and more about how much direction the listener can provide. Spotify’s description emphasizes that Prompted Playlist is built to handle detailed instructions—what kind of tracks to prioritize, what to exclude, and how the music should relate to a given mood or scenario—while also drawing on the listener’s full history and what Spotify calls “what’s happening in music right now.”
Spotify also says it may surface “example prompts” on the Home screen created by its editors and culture experts, intended as starting points that listeners can customize. For people unsure of what to write, Spotify says an “Ideas” option offers quick inspiration inside the feature.
What happens next
Spotify says Prompted Playlist is launching in beta and expanding to Premium users in Canada and the U.S. starting Jan. 22. The company says the feature will roll out to Premium users in both countries by the end of the month.
During the beta, Spotify says some aspects of the experience may evolve as it learns from listener feedback, and it says there will be usage limits in place while it tests and refines the tool.
Spotify also says the playlists can be shared—and that when someone else opens a shared Prompted Playlist, Spotify will tune it to that person’s taste so each listener gets a personalized version.
For Canadian subscribers, the change is another step toward interactive recommendation tools that turn a listener’s words into a set of instructions—shifting playlist-making from picking songs one by one to describing the feeling, setting the rules and letting the app do the assembly.
