Amazon Music follows Spotify with its own, Maestro’s AI playlist generator

Image credit: Amazon

Spotify isn’t the only one tinkering with AI playlists — on Tuesday, Amazon announced it would be doing the same. Amazon Music is now testing Maestro, an AI playlist generator, that allows US users on both iOS and Android to create playlists using spoken or written gestures, which can include emojis.

Amazon suggests that in addition to emojis, users can write gestures that include actions, sounds or emotions. If they don’t know what to write, they can also choose from quick suggestions at the bottom of the screen. Seconds later, an AI-generated playlist will appear with songs that—in theory—match your input.

The product is launching in beta, so Amazon cautions that the technology behind Maestro “won’t always be right the first time.” It says that like Spotify, it has added some safeguards to the experience to proactively prevent offensive language and other inappropriate gestures. (We’re guessing people will try to break these barriers over time!)

Maestro is not yet widely available. While Spotify’s AI generator is beginning its tests in the UK and Australia, Amazon’s product is launching for free Amazon Music users as well as Prime users and a “subset” of unlimited Amazon Music subscribers on iOS and Android in the US. Is. .

However, subscribers will get access to more functionality. For example, they’ll be able to listen to playlists immediately and save them for later, but Prime members and ad-supported users will only be able to listen to 30-second previews of songs before saving them. This could potentially push more users to upgrade to a paid subscription if they like the AI ​​functionality. The move also follows the general trend of making premium AI experiences a paid offering.

To access Maestro, users will need the latest version of the Amazon Music mobile app and tap the Maestro option on their home screen. They can also see the option when they tap the plus sign to create a new playlist. From there, users can either speak or write their own playlist prompt idea, then “Let’s go!” Tap on To begin this series. Playlists can also be saved and shared with friends.

Amazon suggests playlists like “ And food “”Make mine A genius, “MySpace Era Hip-Hop,”“The Music My Grandparents Made,”“, and “I tracked my friends and they’re all hanging out without me”, so you can get an idea of ​​how silly the prompts can be for this new experience.

The company didn’t say when the beta would roll out more widely, only that it would roll out to more users over time.