Ive been trying out Spotifys new Prompted Playlist tool, and it could be a smash hit if the platform tweaks these minor issues

Date:
Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Description:
Spotify just launched Prompted Playlists in the US and Canada, and it's a clever new playlist-making tool, but it could do with some TLC.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Back in December, Spotify launched one of its most powerful playlist creators yet: Prompted Playlists. it was initially made available in beta to Premium members in New Zealand, and following a successful trial run, it's finally expanding to the US and Canada.

Building on Spotify's AI playlist tool, which launched in April 2024,
Prompted Playlists takes a similar approach but gives you full control over where you steer the algorithm. In its news blog , Spotify puts it quite simply: Youre not just asking for music, youre shaping how Spotify goes about discovering it for you.

Using prompts, big or small, you can tell it exactly what you want to hear
and it will generate a unique playlist but there are a few twists.

The most notable difference with Prompted Playlists is that, just like Discover Weekly , it updates every so often, and you get to decide when it does. In addition to fresh music recommendations, Prompted Playlists also offers context behind each song with a new Notes function another selling point for the new tool.

Though Spotify has plans to roll Prompted Playlists out to more markets, its starting with the US and Canada for the first stage of expansion. Ive been experimenting with Prompted Playlists for a few days, and while Im enjoying what it has to offer, its still in its infancy with a lot of room for growth but I see that as a good thing. (Image credit: Spotify) Recreate Discover Weekly, but make it better

Going into Prompted Playlists, my idea was to create a new way to discover
new songs, artists, and genres. I use features like Discover Weekly and Spotifys own All New All Now playlist, so I wanted something more tailored.

For starters, each Prompted Playlist takes around two minutes to generate, which is a bit of a wait, but expected for a feature in its early days. Thats the first area for future improvement. Then it was time to really dive in,
and I kicked things off with the following prompt:

Add songs that have been released in the last week from artists Ive been enjoying recently. It should be similar to the All New All Now playlist, with new tracks from recommended artists. (Image credit: Future)

For a first go, it was quite satisfactory, with a handful of fresh bangers from the past week, albeit a little shorter than my usual playlists (each Prompted Playlist lasts around 60-90 minutes). But it took some tinkering to get it where I exactly wanted it to be.

One of the faults I couldnt shake was the range of artists the playlist recommended, Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen being two of them. I know that Ive never streamed those two artists, nor do I listen to artists of a similar type, so the playlist had no reason to recommend them. After removing them from my Spotify ecosystem, I updated the playlist to see what else it would give me, but ran into a prompt error (see below). (Image credit: Future)

Though you can be hyper-detailed and specific with your prompt, you need to give it a time span thats wide enough for it to gather recommendations from. When I updated it with a more nuanced prompt, things started looking
brighter:

Add songs that have been released in the last two weeks from artists that I enjoy as well as ones youd think Id like. It should span genres similar to
the All New All Now playlist, with new releases from recommended artists
based on my recent listening habits for added music discovery.

After some refining, the final playlist turned out to be just what I was after: a collection of fresh music releases from an even blend of familiar
and new artists, which Ive since included in my weekly music streaming regimen. Now, every Friday I get to wake up to an updated playlist of new music drops tailored to my requests but Im not leaving All New All Now and Discover Weekly behind. (Image credit: Future) A few minor issues, but a
solid starting point

Not every new feature has a perfect landing, including Prompted Playlists. In spite of the tool's clever functions, there's still room for improvement, and Spotify should start with speeding up the time it takes to put a Prompted Playlist together. Another small tweak that would make Prompted Playlists unstoppable is increasing the amount of songs it suggests I reckon a roughly three-hour playlist is reasonable, similar to Daylists .

There's also the matter of recommending artists that don't match my listening habits which Spotify could also work on, however this can also be tackled by entering hyper-specific prompts so that Spotify understands exactly what it
is you want to hear.

Unlike other Spotify features that I've used and immediately abandoned, the Prompted Playlists tool has made a fair impression on me, giving me a new means of fresh music discovery, but one that caters to my personal taste profile . With some tweaks here and there, I can see it becoming quite the hotspot in my Spotify ecosystem.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the
Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/audio/spotify/ive-been-trying-out-spotifys-new-promp ted-playlist-tool-and-it-could-be-a-smash-hit-if-the-platform-tweaks-these-min or-issues


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)