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Spotify's AI DJ Wants to Be Your Favorite Radio Station

With a realistic radio announcer voice, the new feature is Discover Weekly on steroids.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Ty Pendlebury
2 min read
spotify-dj.png
Spotify/Screenshot by CNET

Spotify has unveiled a new beta feature called DJ, which lets music fans listen to their own personal radio station, complete with announcements by an AI "host."

Spotify's head of personalization, Ziad Sultan, told CNET that DJ takes existing personalization features such as Daily Mixes and Wrapped "to the next level." DJ adds a "generative AI in the hands of music experts" -- which translates to some specially curated tracks -- and also incorporates an AI DJ's voice. The AI DJ taps the voice of Spotify's Xavier "X" Jernigan and relates information such as track names and artist biographies. 

The mobile-only feature is rolling out in beta beginning tomorrow to Spotify Premium users in the US and Canada. 

To access DJ: 

1. Click on the Music tab at the top of your Home Screen.

2. If the service is available, the DJ card will appear at the top of your feed. It has the circle graphic seen above.

3. After a brief introduction, the service will begin your personalized feed. You can skip tracks as usual, or If you want to try a different mix, press the DJ button in the bottom right corner.

Spotify is the largest music streaming service in the world, with more than 200 million paid subscribers and 82 million tracks for $10 a month. It's rivaled by Apple Music, which offers higher quality streams and Dolby Atmos mixes for $11 a month.     

Editors' note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers which are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.