Tag: new product launch

Prompted Playlists in Beta Coming to Premium Listeners in More Markets

Some days you want your music to reflect a specific feeling, memory, or vibe that goes beyond a single artist or genre. You want to do more than listen. You want to control how curation and discovery work for you.

We believe that technology is only as good as the humans behind it. That’s why we created Prompted Playlist, which lets you describe exactly what you want to listen to using your own words, then generates a playlist informed by your listening history and what’s happening in music right now. It’s a new way to put meaningful control of the algorithm directly in your hands, with your ideas, your logic, and your creativity. Think of it more as collaboration, not automation: You set the rules, and Spotify works from there.

You’re not just asking for music, you’re shaping how Spotify goes about discovering it for you. That might mean fresher tracks and emerging artists only, deeper cuts based on what you already love, specific genres to include or exclude, or playlists shaped around cultural moments. In other words, you can design discovery around exactly what you’re in the mood for, from your own take on Discover Weekly to something entirely new. 

In December 2025, we began testing Prompted Playlist with Premium listeners in New Zealand, and music fans have been quick to get creative. Listeners are using prompts to bring back songs tied to specific moments, like late nights during the winter, while filtering out tracks they’ve overplayed recently. Others are asking for long, lyric-free electronic playlists to power through a workday, or mixing in artists connected to current pop culture moments and viral trends.

Now, we’re excited to share Prompted Playlist with more Premium listeners in beta across the U.S. and Canada starting today.

Prompted Playlist builds on a simple question: What do you want to hear? 

You can start broad and request, “mood-boosting indie-pop for getting ready to go out with friends including songs recently featured on hit competition and reality shows that fit my taste, along with songs I love but haven’t played this year.” Or begin with a scenario like, “warm acoustic songs for a slow Sunday morning, plus hidden gems and covers from singer-songwriters trending globally right now.”

Once you share what you’re looking for, Spotify generates your playlist using real-time information about the world of music, including trends, charts, culture, and history. Your entire listening history from when you first joined Spotify is factored in, meaning each playlist reflects not only what you love today, but the full arc of your taste. Discover new artists and revisit the favorites who’ve shaped your listening. And when you’re ready for something different, you can guide the algorithm in a whole new direction.

You can edit your prompt anytime, or start fresh whenever inspiration hits. You can also choose to set it to refresh daily or weekly so your playlist always stays new and in sync with your world. Every song includes a quick one-liner that tells you exactly why it landed in your playlist. Need help getting started? Tap “Ideas” for quick inspiration. 

“We hear from listeners all the time that they love playlists, but making their own can feel daunting,” said Sulinna Ong, Global Head of Editorial. “Our editors spend a lot of time thoughtfully curating playlists, and that level of intention can be hard to replicate when you’re starting from scratch. Prompted Playlist offers a more intuitive entry point, letting users begin with moods, moments, or ideas in their own words, and build something that feels personal.”

 

You may also see special example prompts on your Home screen created by Spotify’s music editors and culture experts. They’ve designed a mix of playful prompts that generate personalized playlist ideas you can easily customize. 

Introducing Listening Activity and Request to Jam in Messages on Spotify

We know people use Spotify not just to listen, but to share the songs, podcasts, and audiobooks they love with their friends and family. When we launched Messages last year, we gave users a place to do that right in the app. Since then, almost 40 million users have sent nearly 340 million messages, showing that listeners are excited to share what they’re streaming.  

Today, we’re building on that experience with two new Messages features: Listening activity and Request to Jam. Listening activity gives users a real-time look at what music their friends and family are listening to, while Request to Jam makes it easy to quickly turn those moments into shared listening sessions.

Take a look…

Listening activity 

Listening activity is an opt-in feature that allows you to display what music you’re currently listening to within Messages in real time. If you’re not actively listening, your most recently played song will be displayed instead. It’s visible only to friends and family you have already connected with on Messages, and you can see others’ activity even if you haven’t turned your own activity on, as long as they’ve opted in.

Here’s how it works:

    • Users can turn on listening activity via Privacy and social settings, accessible through the side drawer next to the “View profile” button. 
    • Once enabled, activity appears in the chat row of the side drawer and at the top of Messages chats.
    • If a user taps on their friend or family member’s listening activity, they’ll be able to add tracks to their library, start playback, open the track’s context menu, or react with one of six standard emojis.

Listening activity is only shared with people you’ve already messaged on Spotify, and you’re always in control—only the contacts you choose can see your activity, and you can turn it off at any time.

Request to Jam

To complement listening activity, we’re making it easier to turn musical moments into shared experiences with Request to Jam, a new way for users to invite friends or family they’re connected with in Messages into a live listening session.

Our Jam feature has been growing in popularity, with daily active users more than doubling year over year. With Jam, users can listen from anywhere—but it can be hard to know when your friends are available to listen together when you’re apart. Now, users can see when someone is already listening, join them, and even message in sync while listening so they can talk about what’s playing and what’s up next.

Here’s how it works:

    • From a Messages chat, Premium users can tap Jam in the top right corner to send a request for a remote Jam. 
    • Your friend will receive the request and can either accept or decline.
    • If accepted, the recipient becomes the host of the Jam session. From there, both participants in the Jam can add tracks to a shared queue and listen together.

These new updates make it easier for users to enjoy music together while making discovery and expression even more seamless.

Spotify’s Free Experience Is Even Better—Here’s How to Make the Most of It

Every day, millions of people around the world turn to Spotify to enjoy the audio they love. We’re continually improving the service to help you discover music with Premium-only features like Lossless, AI Playlist, and Mix; features that work across the free and paid experience, like Messages and daylist; and playlists curated by our leading global music editorial team. It’s all designed to help listeners get closer to the artists they love and connect them with their next favorite songs. 

Today, we’re sharing ways the Free experience, where the majority of users start their Spotify journeys, is getting even better. We’re rolling out updates globally, making it easier (and more fun) than ever to listen, connect, and share music for free.

Whether you’ve previously tried Spotify or you’re a long-time streamer with our free experience, there’s a lot to love about these enhancements. You now have more control over how you listen: Search and play any track or jump right into something your friend just shared.

Our goal is to help you get the most out of your music. We’re continuing to invest in making Spotify the best place for fans and creators to meet—no matter how they listen.

So, if you’re ready to check out all the new features, here are some tips to help you dive in deeper and enjoy everything Spotify has to offer.

More control: Freedom to play, search, and share

We’ve made it as simple as possible to enjoy music and podcasts on our free experience, helping you discover new music or listen to an artist you love. Now you can:

    • Pick & Play Got a nagging earworm? Hit play in the Spotify app, and you can pick and play any song you want.
    • Search & Play Type in your favorite track and start listening instantly.
    • Share & Play Love sharing your favorite tracks with friends? Has an artist shared a new track on social that you want to hear? Tap to listen right away.

Your assignment: Discover the power of playlists

You can listen to songs you love for free via personalized playlists, through editorial playlists curated by our in-house music experts, or by making your own. It’s quick and easy to get started. Simply select your own title, then choose a few tracks to add. In the meantime, we’ll start recommending songs for you to add with the tap of a button.

And here’s the best part: The more music and podcasts you enjoy, and the more you tell us what you like, the more Spotify can personalize recommendations to help you discover even more songs, artists, and podcasts.

That’s so you: Personalize your playlist covers

So you’ve mastered the art of curating incredible playlists . . . now what? You can design your own playlist cover right on Spotify. Available in 128 Spotify markets around the world, this feature lets you add your stamp to your playlist covers with unique images, colors, text effects, and graphic elements that match the distinct vibe of your playlists. 

Whether you’re on iOS or Android, just head to our mobile app (reminder to make sure it’s up-to-date) and select a playlist you’ve created to get started. Then tap the three-dot menu and choose “create cover art.”

Pro tip: You can only save one custom cover art per playlist at a time, and each new cover you create will override the previous one for that specific playlist.

Soundtrack your daily mood with daylist

As you develop daily listening habits on Spotify, you’ll be able to discover music that suits a specific moment using daylist. This one-of-a-kind playlist understands and reflects what types of music you like to listen to during particular moments in the day, or on specific days of the week. Users on our free experience around the world will find their daylists regularly updating with different songs and titles. If, for example, you’re looking for songs that match your mood from sunup to sundown, daylist has you covered.

Pro tip: When you love a specific daylist playlist, you can copy and save it by tapping the three-dot menu, scrolling down to “Add to playlist,” and tapping “New playlist.” It will be available to revisit whenever you like.

Expand your musical horizons

Searching for your next favorite song but not quite sure where to start? You can easily discover new sounds with playlists like Discover Weekly. It brings you a fresh mix of personalized recommendations every week based on what you’ve been listening to, and the more you use Spotify, the better we get at finding just the right tracks, artists, and genres for you. Or check out Release Radar, which delivers the latest drops from the artists you follow. Even more, for the first time, clicking through and listening to the exact track your favorite artist just shared on their socials is easier than ever.

Lyrics: Your listening session copilot

With lyrics, you can connect to the song and artist you’re listening to on a deeper level and explore the meaning behind each song. 

When listening to a song with available lyrics, you can swipe up from the bottom of the Now Playing View in the Spotify mobile app to display the track’s lyrics, which scroll line by line in real time as the song plays.

Pro tip: See lyrics you want to share? You can send them straight from the app to friends on Instagram, WhatsApp, and more. It’s a simple way to share how you’re feeling through the music.