Justin Covington

Product Lead, AI DJ @Spotify

[Daniel Ek @eldsjal]

Happy Halloween from AI DJ (and me 🎃)!

[Jemaine Clement @AJemaineClement]

People really hate AI but I just tried the Spotify AI DJ that I didn't know existed and I think he's my coolest friend. I hope he doesn't read this.

[Rachel Woods @rachel_l_woods]

Decided to write out my thoughts on why I've been so impressed with Spotify's new AI DJ

This is really shaping what I think we might see next with personalized experiences

Recap --

I turned on Spotify's new AI DJ a few days ago. And have not turned it off since.

(not because I can't figure out how to h/t @bentossell )

It's unlike any music personalization product I've experienced

Yes the picks are great (I've got great taste 💁‍♀️ )

But the secret sauce is the voice, the "DJ"... who intermittently interrupts the tracks and calls my name, "Rachel, this one's for you."

Until now, I haven't been sure if I'd like having AI assistants that really feel human-like

But it's been days, and I'm beginning to think, "Yes."

"Hey Rachel, let's turn back time with your OG plays," UM yes. Let's do it.

Even if I'm not really in the mood for a song, there's something about the way it's curated that sells me on it. "You're right, OG plays sound great right now".

Kinda wild.

Is it the personalization? That connection that mirrors human touch?

I can totally see myself "calling in" to my DJ, bringing me back to those days when you'd wait on hold for hours to try to get a song request in (yes I was one of those that did that)

What's remarkable is that this is an infinitely scalable experience. And can go much, much deeper. And be applied to many other disciplines.

Think about those experiences where you wish you could give your customer the full attention of your team, but it doesn't scale:

- Onboarding
- Learning your product
- Troubleshooting issues
- Heck, even selling them in the first place

The personalization at scale here feels like nothing we've had before.

Kudos to the Spotify team, you've shipped something impressive.

[Ben Gilbert @gilbert]

Okay @spotify's AI DJ feature is actually really awesome.

At some point I'll stop being shocked by AI products working well, but I'm still at the point where I underestimate and then am floored.

[Daniel Ek @eldsjal]

It’s been almost 12 weeks since we launched AI DJ; Amazing is that more than half of first-time listeners come back to listen to DJ the very next day.
And today, it's rolling out to Premium users in the UK 🇬🇧 & Ireland 🇮🇪 https://t.co/SXZIrnS7ZF.

[Kevin Kelly @kevin2kelly]

All the cool stuff that AIs are doing now, they have been capable of doing for a while. What's new is that suddenly they have a language interface — we can use them conversationally. Interfaces are huge.

[Inside TWiT @InsideTWiT]

- @JasonHowell talks how #AI is impacting books and writing.
- @MikahSargent shares @Spotify 's launch of #DJ, music with AI-powered commentary. 
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[Rich Greenfield, LightShed 🔦 @RichLightShed]

Listening to the new AI DJ spinning tracks on @Spotify @eldsjal $SPOT

[Gustav Söderström @GustavS]

Pretty proud of the @Spotify team for this one – a generative, expressive and realistic AI DJ that delivers a personalized lineup of music and commentary to each user, for all those times you don’t know exactly what you want to hear. Hope you like it! 🎧 https://t.co/4PwXKUW0Cl

[Justin Covington @jdc0v]

Happy to introduce the world to Spotify's AI DJ. Truly remarkable working with the team to create such an innovative way to build deep, meaningful connections between fans and artists.

https://t.co/SKgoveIJYi