Spotify used its 2026 Investor Day to introduce new features, including a desktop app built around AI. The company’s new Studio by Spotify Labs is effectively a NotebookLM for audio that integrates streaming services into your daily routine.
The new software not only syncs with your calendar, email, and notes, but also generates research-based audio and can be used in a web browser. You can also create a music playlist for your upcoming road trip, customize your daily briefing podcast for the day, and even get recommendations for dinner spots upon arrival.
Spotify now lets you control the algorithm with new prompt playlists
Create your own daily mixes and more.
The app uses chatbot-style conversations, so you can make requests in natural language and make changes that are hard to quantify, such as the “atmosphere” of voice selections. Spotify stresses that the app only works with the user’s permission and warns that the AI it generates can still make mistakes.
Studio is available as a “research preview” to some adult Spotify users in more than 20 countries. The company did not say if or when a final version or mobile support would be available. But the goal is already clear. Spotify wants you to feel like its service is essential, making it even harder for people to switch to Apple Music or other rivals.
You can also book concert tickets for your favorite artists
Spotify isn’t just relying on Studio to deepen its AI integrations. The company wants to strike a balance between the demand for AI-generated music and respect for human artists. It just signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group that will allow fans to use AI to create covers and remixes if musicians allow it. If you want a trance mix of your favorite folk songs, you can collaborate and artists and songwriters can still get paid.
You can also use AI to ask Spotify questions about the podcast you’re playing, including concept explanations and recommendations related to the show’s creator. This feature is now available on mobile for Premium subscribers in the US, Ireland, and Sweden. YTou can also generate personal podcasts within Spotify, including the aforementioned briefings and explorations of your favorite topics and creators.
The company is expanding Audiobooks+ with more plans. You can add extra reading time this summer, and family and student plans will be coming later this year. AI prompt-generated playlists will also be coming to Audiobooks in the summer.
Spotify also claims it has a solution for loyal fans who are tired of fighting bots and scalpers to get concert tickets. A newly available reservation feature allows U.S. adult Premium members to secure up to two tickets if they are an artist’s most frequent listener.
