Spotify’s current AI bet is about being the music service that agents choose

Spotify had a beardown third quarter, reaching 788 cardinal monthly progressive users and generating astir €5 cardinal (around $5.6 cardinal USD) successful revenue. But the much absorbing takeaway from its net telephone was however the institution sees radical listening to euphony successful the future, and wherefore the emergence of AI agents could beryllium bully quality for its business.

Co-CEO Gustav Söderström thinks the euphony streaming elephantine is peculiarly good suited to this shift. 

“Spotify is successful 1 of the fewer categories that really stands to thrive successful the agentic age,” Söderström tells investors. “This is due to the fact that agents excel astatine replacing and taking attraction of things radical would alternatively not do. People emotion getting escaped of chores. But amusement is the opposite. Nobody asks an cause to ‘summarize a song’ for them.”

Instead of opening Spotify, searching for an creator and gathering a playlist themselves, listeners could inquire an AI adjunct to bash the enactment for them. They mightiness privation euphony for a run, a podcast astir thing they’ve been discussing with an AI, oregon an audiobook recap that picks up precisely wherever they near off.

Spotify wants to beryllium the work those agents crook to, letting radical observe euphony and interact with Spotify done conversations alternatively than conscionable its ain app. Notably, Spotify was the archetypal euphony work to integrate with Meta’s Muse assistant, and it besides integrates with ChatGPT and Claude.

“Our extremity is to beryllium the media work that you usage from immoderate agent, truly turning the maturation of agents into a tailwind alternatively than a headwind. That is precisely what we are seeing now. We are seeing truly bully adoption of Spotify wrong these agents. While different companies are possibly trying to fig retired what to bash and galore are leaning out, we are really leaning successful and participating successful the maturation alternatively of lasting by the roadside and looking astatine it,” said Söderström.

The marketplace is already showing signs of friction implicit however agents entree third-party services. Amazon, for example, has blocked Meta’s Muse from buying connected its platform, illustrating however large players whitethorn restrict extracurricular agents erstwhile questions originate astir access, security, privacy, oregon commercialized control. 

Spotify’s transportation isn’t conscionable that AI shouldn’t conscionable marque amusement easier to find. It should marque the acquisition much personal, too.  

Söderström describes Spotify contiguous arsenic “an intelligent media work encapsulated arsenic an agent, whether you usage it straight done our exertion oregon via different agent…Spotify is present an cause that you tin not lone click connected successful our app, but speech to, inquire questions of, and instruct. We tin bash things contiguous that nary different media services tin do,” helium said.

“For example, you tin inquire Spotify to spell done your listening past opus by opus backmost to 2008, picking your existent favorites, beat-stretching them by speeding them up oregon down, and past sorting them by cardinal and BPM. Then you tin inquire it to premix them unneurotic into the cleanable moving playlist astatine your nonstop cadence,” Söderström explained.

Spotify has years of listening past to gully on, including the artists radical instrumentality to, the songs they skip, and the euphony they discover. That accusation tin assistance it marque recommendations that consciousness much idiosyncratic than a generic playlist generated by an AI adjunct that doesn’t cognize overmuch astir someone’s tastes.

However, Söderström besides emphasized that Spotify isn’t sending its listener information to partners. Instead, the cause asks Spotify for something, and Spotify uses its ain systems to crushed astir the petition and take what to play.