YouTube Music copies controversial Spotify AI feature

• YouTube Music adds an AI DJ
• Not everyone is a fan of the addition

Like it or not, AI appears here to stay, and it’s finding its way to your favorite music streaming apps. Spotify debuted an AI DJ back in 2023, and now YouTube Music is jumping on the bandwagon. This DJ emulates the feel of listening to a radio show, and while it started out a bit barebones, the addition of AI playlists earlier this year helped breathe life into the service.

It seems like YouTube Music saw the improvements being made and decided to get in on the action, with its own AI-powered DJ rolling out now to a select number of YouTube Labs users in the US.

If you’re familiar with how Spotify’s AI works, it sounds like this is practically the same thing. As far as features are concerned, this is a big one and could help close the gap between YouTube Music and Spotify if it officially debuts as part of the YouTube Music app at some point in the future.

YouTube Music adds an AI DJ

Catching up with the competition

There are some key differences between Spotify’s DJ and YouTube’s. The big one is that YouTube Music gives you some trivia questions to answer, if you’re into that, and it helps the whole experience feel more interactive.

Reddit user DalekBricks said a 30-second clip played between songs, discussing the song that had just played and the one about to come on. The important thing to note here is that these are two AI-generated voices, and that means the uncanny feeling could be off-putting. There will likely be changes between now and its official release, so if you have problems with it now, the issues might not persist past the testing phase.

Not everyone is a fan of the addition

Par for the course with AI

The DJs will give you information about the artist, but with this being AI still in its relative infancy, the facts won’t always be right. If you’re typically listening to popular artists, this is less likely to be an issue as there’s a lot more data to draw from.

Changes like this typically ruffle feathers, especially since many people are opposed to AI creeping its way into things. The good news here is it’s not officially integrated into everything. If you have your own playlists you created, it seems like those are exempt from the AI DJ. However, listening to anything generated for you, like a YouTube Music radio station, then you’ll be exposed to the AI hosts. There’s also the option to turn it off completely, so you can fully opt out if you’re not a fan. It may only be a matter of time now until Apple Music counters with its own AI DJ.