Spotify artistMusic industryArtificial intelligenceThe Sound of Intelligence: How AI can empower Spotify Artists

Sherlin Jannet

Sherlin Jannet

September 14, 2023·3 min read

There’s a reason Spotify is so addictive. And no, it’s not just the songs—the algorithm behind the songs plays a definite role in feeding the addiction. Spotify gives a lot of importance to personalisation to suit the needs of listeners, and to make this possible, Spotify uses AI. You can say that there’s a science behind why your Spotify account reflects your personality or even your mood for a given day. Whether you’re an artist or a curious bystander, this blog is for you. Read on to discover how you can leverage this intelligence to refine your creative process as a Spotify artist.

How Spotify uses AI to help artists

Personalised Recommendations

Spotify uses collaborative filtering, content-based filtering and other machine learning techniques to provide Spotify audiences with personalised recommendations. The way collaborative filtering works is if two users have the same taste in music and one user likes a particular song that the other user has not listened to, Spotify suggests the song to them.

Discovering New Music

When it comes to discovering new music on Spotify, collaborative filtering is not of much help. It can get users stuck with the same music, making it hard to find new artists and hidden gems. Spotify’s content-based filtering technique solves this problem by providing recommendations based on audio characteristics. The filter uses AI to analyse the audio for the estimated time signature, tempo, key, rhythm and dynamics. This helps the algorithm to recommend songs with similar characteristics to that of the user’s favourite songs.

Reinforcement learning

Spotify uses AI to learn from its inaccuracies and to continuously tune its recommendations for users. Through interactive trial and error, Spotify studies user behaviour in association with a recommended song. By repeating recommendations that return positive behaviour and eliminating the ones that don’t Spotify can read it’s user’s mind to act as best suits the individual.

How spotify artists can leverage AI

AI-powered insights for Artists

Spotify for artists provides you with detailed insights about your music’s performance on the platform. AI-driven analytics help understand your audience demographics, geographic reach and how listeners engage with your music. This information can help you curate marketing and touring strategies. Other than these inbuilt tools, artists can also use other AI tools that can aid them in the process of song-writing and music production.

Transcription and transliteration

Lyrics are an integral part of a song’s composition, transcription of the song into song lyrics serves as a document for historical and archival purposes. AI web-apps such as Exemplary AI can help transcribe your song audio to generate automated lyrics when uploaded. Audio without music and vocals only work best for transcription. You can then integrate the song lyrics with your song on Spotify so that your audience can enjoy singing along to your music.

Exemplary AI can also provide you with a transliteration of your lyrics if the song is in a regional language. Use the prompt “Generate an English script of the transcription”. This is mostly preferred by spotify users as they consist of a global audience.

Transcribing your lyrics also facilitates translation of the lyrics. Lyrics often have complex cultural and artistic expressions which may not be easily understood by people who speak a different language. By providing a translation of the lyrics, you can make the song accessible to a wider audience. Although Spotify insists on adding your song lyrics as is. Translation could be something that Spotify will introduce in the future.

Lyric Analysis and songwriting assistance

Working with AI-assistants like Exemplary AI could help you write better lyrics. You can analyse the transcript of your song to identify themes and sentiments that you may have missed. Try using the prompt “Generate a lyrical analysis of the transcript”. These insights could direct you in writing the rest of the song or to better understand your own work. You could also study the work of other song-writers using this platform.

Personalization remains central to Spotify's ethos. As a Spotify artist, understanding your audience is pivotal. Recognizing their preferences, favorite aspects of your tracks, and more can significantly influence your creative process. In this journey, AI stands as a valuable ally, equipping you with the insights required to produce compelling, unique, and insightful music.