Spotify Turns to Google for AI Listener Recommendations

Spotify has expanded its partnership with Google to deepen its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings.

The streaming audio platform has worked with Google Cloud since 2016, and announced Thursday (Nov. 16) it will now use the tech giant’s AI tools to improve parts of its platform.

“Through this expanded partnership, Google Cloud’s AI tools are helping Spotify to elevate the listening experience for its customers,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said in a news release. “Spotify also recognizes the potential AI can have across their business, and together, we will continue to deliver innovative technologies that benefit their business.”

According to the release, Spotify is exploring ways to improve the listener experience by using AI large language models (LLMS) to understand the patterns behind “spoken content” like audiobooks and podcasts to make new, personalized recommendations.

In addition, Spotify hopes to use LLMs to “better understand the breadth of its content library and augment the metadata used to present this content to users every day,” and to use the technology to uncover potentially harmful content.

The announcement follows comments by Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek last month that the company wanted to use AI to boost engagement and generate an “even more compelling value” for listeners.

Speaking during an earnings call, Ek noted that Spotify’s AI DJ was created with this specific goal in mind: “It can personalize things. It can contextualize things. It can provide this thing at a scale that would be impossible to do by humans.”

“Ek also highlighted the significance of AI voice translation at Spotify and stressed that as Spotify expands its content library, it naturally enhances user engagement, as it increases the likelihood of offering content that resonates with consumers,” PYMNTS wrote.

“With that, AI voice translation holds immense potential for both creators and consumers, particularly in non-English language content, where availability is limited.”

There are limits to Spotify’s good feelings about AI. As reported here in May, the company has apparently pulled tens of thousands of AI-generated songs from its platform or about 7% of the songs contributed by the AI music service Boomy.

That came after Universal Music reportedly informed platforms like Spotify about seeing dubious streaming patterns with Boomy’s tracks. These songs were taken down due to concerns about “artificial streaming,” involving online bots posing as real users to inflate the song’s metrics.