Spotify is rolling out a new beta feature to Premium users in Australia, giving them the ability to generate hyper-personalised playlists in seconds using nothing more than a sentence.
Called Prompted Playlist, the tool allows users to describe an idea, mood or moment in everyday language.
Spotify then builds a playlist based on that prompt, drawing on a user’s listening history and what’s happening in music and culture right now.
How prompted playlist works
To access the feature, Premium users open Spotify, tap Create, and select Prompted Playlist.
From there, it’s simple:
• Describe what you want to hear, whether that’s a specific vibe, scenario or cultural moment.
• Spotify generates a playlist from your idea.
• Users can then set the playlist to refresh daily or weekly.
Here’s Mediaweek’s suggested playlist after typing in the prompt: Create a playlist for someone who works in a high-paced environment, such as media or advertising, and who needs to chill out:
Our previous prompt: Create a playlist for someone who works in trade media, didn’t go quite so well:
From passive listening to active curation
The feature taps into the growing appetite for conversational interfaces and AI-assisted discovery, effectively turning Spotify into a music concierge.
And the prompts can get specific.
Spotify suggests ideas like:
“Make me a playlist for my morning commute that only has Aussie artists. Make sure their vibe and sound are similar to my usual listening, and can get the vibes going on my way to work.”
“Make me a playlist of songs I’ve saved to my Library (playlists or Liked Songs) that I either haven’t played yet or have only listened to once. The goal is to round up those songs I found, saved, and then totally forgot to revisit. Give me a chance to finally hear what I’ve been missing.”
“What are the first tracks I ever listened to on Spotify? Order them by the very first track I ever streamed – with date and time – and keep going.”
“I’ve just watched the new Wuthering Heights film! Create me a playlist of songs with gothic and eerie vibes, whilst still romantic. Please include additional tracks from my listening history that include themes of passion and intensity.”
In other words, the feature isn’t just about mood-based playlists. It leans into nostalgia, hyper-local discovery, personal data mining and even cultural moments.
(OK, so maybe our trade media prompt wasn’t specific enough)
Why Australia first?
The beta launch in Australia positions the market as an early testing ground for deeper personalisation features. For Premium users, it adds another layer of perceived value beyond ad-free listening and downloads.
For Spotify, it strengthens engagement loops. The more specific the prompt, the more data the platform can learn from in return.
In an increasingly crowded streaming market, the race isn’t just for catalogue depth. It’s for contextual relevance.
And with Prompted Playlist, Spotify is betting that handing users a little more control over the machine will keep them listening longer.