Spotify adds AI-powered Q&A and briefing generation features to podcasts
Quick Answer
Spotify has introduced AI-powered features for podcasts, allowing users to generate daily or weekly briefs based on their prompts.
Quick Take
This enhancement aims to streamline content consumption, making it easier for listeners to stay informed about their favorite shows. The new capabilities leverage advanced AI technologies to provide personalized summaries.
Key Points
- Users can create personalized daily or weekly podcast briefs.
- The new features enhance content consumption efficiency for listeners.
- AI technologies are leveraged for generating tailored summaries.
- Spotify aims to improve user engagement with podcast content.
- These updates reflect Spotify's commitment to innovation in audio experiences.
📖 Reader Mode
~2 min readFor 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.
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Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.
You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing im@ivanmehta.com or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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