YouTube Music and Deezer Unveil New AI Features

Music streaming services YouTube Music and Deezer have joined Spotify and Amazon Music in the race to integrate new AI services.

AI Radio and Shazam-like Tool from YouTube Music

YouTube Music has introduced two new tools, reports TechCrunch:

• an AI-powered conversational radio feature;
• a Shazam-like tool.

The first feature allows users to create their own radio station by describing desired songs. Requests can include phrases like “catchy pop choruses” or “upbeat pop anthems.” This new functionality is available to some YouTube Premium users in the US, with plans to expand its availability geographically.

The second tool is akin to Shazam. Users can hum or play a snippet of a song to find the original. The humming feature is unique to YouTube’s new service, as Shazam only allows song identification through a snippet. The tool was first available on Android earlier this year and is now open to all iOS and Android users.

AI Playlists from Deezer

French music streaming service Deezer has launched “Playlist with AI,” a feature for creating AI-based playlists using prompts. Five percent of users with a paid subscription will gain access to the beta test of the new tool.

Users can create playlists using written prompts that describe moods, genres, years, activities, and other variables. For instance, one might ask Deezer to create a “2000s pop-rock workout playlist” or a “2010s feel-good study session playlist.”

“We are excited to introduce this AI-based feature to Deezer users worldwide. Whether you need the perfect music for a workout, a romantic evening, or a nostalgic trip down memory lane, our ‘Playlist with AI’ feature will create a new musical experience in seconds and offer endless opportunities for easy music discovery,” commented the company’s Vice President of Product, Alexandra Leloup.

Deezer employs AI to enhance user experience and recommendations. The Deezer Flow feature for creating mixes uses artificial intelligence, and the Shazam-like SongCatcher also operates on a neural network.

Spotify and Amazon Music: AI Pioneers

Other music services have already embraced AI. In April, streaming service Spotify introduced a beta version of a new AI Playlist option, allowing playlist creation based on prompts. In addition to standard genre or era requests, the platform uses neural networks to create a broader range of music selections.

In the same month, Amazon Music announced a similar service called Maestro, an AI-powered playlist generator based on prompts. Initially, it became available in the US on iOS and Android.

? A playlist perfectly catered to your mood? Even for crying ? and eating pasta?? Meet Maestro: Our #AI playlist generator that helps you create any playlist you can think of (plus the ones you can’t).

Rolling out to a subset of U.S. customers on all tiers of @amazonmusic to… pic.twitter.com/T2IhcG3FD8

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) April 16, 2024

Back in May of last year, Spotify removed thousands of AI-generated tracks, amounting to “tens of thousands” of songs.