Tag: voice technology

Spotify’s AI Voice Translation Pilot Means Your Favorite Podcasters Might Be Heard in Your Native Language

September 25, 2023

Across cultures, countries, and communities, the stories we share bring us together. And more often than not, it is the voices of the speakers that lend as much weight to the stories as the narratives themselves. For more than 15 years, Spotify’s global platform has empowered creators of all walks to share their work with audiences around the world. At its core, this has been made possible through technology that’s leveraged the power of audio to overcome barriers to access, borders, and distance. But with recent advancements, we’ve been wondering: Are there more ways we can bridge the language gap so that these voices can be heard worldwide?

Today, we’re excited to pilot Voice Translation for podcasts, a groundbreaking feature powered by AI that translates podcasts into additional languages—all in the podcaster’s voice. 


This Spotify-developed tool leverages the latest innovations—one of which is OpenAI’s newly released voice generation technology—to match the original speaker’s style, making for a more authentic listening experience that sounds more personal and natural than traditional dubbing. A podcast episode originally recorded in English can now be available in other languages while keeping the speaker’s distinctive speech characteristics.  

As part of the pilot, we’ve worked closely with podcasters Dax Shepard, Monica Padman, Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons, and Steven Bartlett to generate AI-powered voice translations in other languages—including Spanish, French, and German—for a select number of catalog episodes and future episode releases. We’re also looking forward to including other shows, such as Dax Shepard’s eff won with DRS, The Rewatchables from The Ringer, and Trevor Noah’s new original podcast, which launches later this year.

“By matching the creator’s own voice, Voice Translation gives listeners around the world the power to discover and be inspired by new podcasters in a more authentic way than ever before,” says Ziad Sultan, VP of Personalization. “We believe that a thoughtful approach to AI can help build deeper connections between listeners and creators, a key component of Spotify’s mission to unlock the potential of human creativity.”

Voice-translated episodes from pilot creators will be available worldwide to Premium and Free users. We’re starting by releasing an initial bundle of translated episodes in Spanish, with French and German rolling out in the coming days and weeks:

  1. Lex Fridman Podcast – “Interview with Yuval Noah Harari”
  2. Armchair Expert – “Kristen Bell, by the grace of god, returns”
  3. The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett – “Interview with Dr. Mindy Pelz”

We’ll start rolling these out to users on the Now Playing View of supported episodes starting today. Can’t wait and want to hear the episodes right away? Head to the dedicated Voice Translations Hub, which we’ll update with even more voice-translated episodes over the coming weeks and months.

Today is just the beginning. We’re excited to empower creators to bring their storytelling to more listeners across the world. The creator and audience feedback from the pilot will provide important insights for future expansion, iterations, and innovations. As the number of people (100M+) regularly listening to podcasts on Spotify continues to grow, we’ll continue exploring new ways to overcome barriers to storytelling.

Stay tuned to Spotify for Podcasters as we aim to expand access for more creators and languages.

Responsibly Balancing What Goes Into Your Personalized Recommendations

March 6, 2023

Every month, tens of billions of discoveries happen on Spotify. Personalized recommendations play an important role in our ability to match listeners around the world with the right content, tracks, artists, or creators at the right moment. Behind the scenes, we combine human editorial expertise with a multitude of signals and systems with the aim of providing every listener with a unique and safe experience. 

At Spotify we focus on delivering recommendations that are relevant, encourage diversity in listening, and provide the opportunities for artist and creator discovery. We spoke with Henriette Cramer, Director of Algorithmic Impact, and Amar Ashar, Head of Algorithmic Policy—both members of the Trust & Safety team—for a deeper look at algorithmic impact and safety. 

Why focus on algorithmic impact? 

Henriette: Algorithmically programmed experiences like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Made for You Mixes, or even Search, provide opportunities for artists and podcast creators to grow their fan bases. But while machine learning and algorithms enable these really important opportunities, we know we have a responsibility to mitigate unintended harms, ensure we represent a very wide range of global creators on our platform, and understand our impact.

Understanding our algorithmic impact requires extensive internal and external collaboration, and we approach this space through three channels: research, product engagement, and collaboration with external partners. It’s an ever-evolving field, and we’re proactively working with Spotify teams and external stakeholders to continuously improve our approach as we continue to learn. 

What makes Spotify unique, from an algorithmic perspective? 

Amar: People often talk about the “Spotify Algorithm,” but that’s an oversimplification. In fact, Spotify’s personalization is a combination of a variety of algorithms, along with editorial and data curation teams, all contributing to a unique experience for each listener.

Spotify editors play a crucial role within this space by using their expert judgment to curate playlists and help artists find new fans. They also work with algorithms to create highly situational and personalized experiences. We call this “algotorial”—bringing both the editorial and algorithmic worlds together. This collaboration is critical to the Spotify experience. Think of it this way: Algorithms don’t go out to concerts, people do, which is why human expertise is an essential ingredient in our recommendations. 

We just released a new AI DJ that delivers a curated lineup of music alongside commentary around the tracks and artists. How are teams at Spotify working together to make sure the safety of recommendations is prioritized?

Henriette: In general, ensuring we approach Spotify recommendations responsibly requires close coordination between lots of teams across product, policy, legal, and research. We work with each of them to provide guidance that’s reflective of our algorithmic equity and safety goals, and we use various tools, such as algorithmic assessments, that help us identify and solve problems before they happen. 

Spotify’s DJ takes a unique approach by combining Spotify’s personalization technology, generative AI in the hands of music editors, and voice technology. The expertise of our editors is something that’s really important to our philosophy. As we launch new features, we aim for appropriate safety measures and processes to be in place. The product has been tested in a closed environment for a while, and now that we have launched this product as a beta, we’ll continue to study and improve the experience. 

How does your team work with external partners to improve Spotify’s personalized experience?

Amar: Engaging with research communities outside of Spotify is imperative to do our work. That’s why we also continue to share our findings with the wider community, collaborate across sectors, and ensure, as an industry, that we keep learning and evolving existing practices. 

We also work closely with external partners through Spotify’s Safety Advisory Council, which includes an interdisciplinary group of experts who advise us on safety topics and bring expertise on recommendations, responsibility, and safety from a global perspective.

What’s your go-to playlist?  

Amar: Discover Weekly, not only because it’s consistently a great playlist that has introduced me to new artists and genres, but also because I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with the team that’s built this flagship product.   

Henriette: So many! I love editorial playlists like Techno Bunker, Queens of the Blues, or New Orleans Brass to really get into a genre. Since I worked on voice projects in the past, it’s been really nice to play with the new DJ beta and see editorial, tech, and design work shine together as we continue to study how we can use new techniques responsibly.