Spotify has introduced an AI-generated podcast for its Wrapped experience, leveraging Google’s NotebookLM technology to personalize long-form audio content for users. The podcast provides a conversational analysis of the user’s 2024 listening patterns, addressing them by name and speaking in the second person.
Spotify’s introduction of an AI-generated podcast for its Wrapped experience marks a significant step in personalizing the audio content for users. By leveraging Google’s NotebookLM technology, Spotify aims to make its platform the leading destination for long-form audio.
The podcast, powered by Google’s NotebookLM, is designed to offer a conversational analysis of the user’s 2024 listening patterns. Two synthetic hosts will discuss the user’s most-played tracks and favorite artists with enthusiasm, providing an immersive experience.
This feature is available in English for users in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and Sweden. The podcast is fully personalized, addressing users by name and speaking in the second person. It provides both hard facts about the user’s listening habits and a more in-depth analysis of their preferences.
The introduction of this feature comes just after Apple Music released its Replay report, which also offers insights into users’ listening habits but lacks the AI-generated podcast aspect.
This move by Spotify arrives at a time when concerns about Big Tech’s surveillance of user behavior are growing. The company has faced criticism for rebranding its precise tracking as a holiday gift. However, with this feature, Spotify aims to solidify its position in the long-form audio medium, having added podcasts to its streaming library in 2019 and since then seen half a billion people listen to a podcast on the platform.
The hosts of the podcast are designed to sound strikingly similar to human-to-human conversations. They will analyze data collected by Spotify about the user, flatter them with positive statements about their music taste, and even attempt to infer details about their lifestyle based on listening habits.
