Spotify is giving listeners in New Zealand a new way to boss its algorithm around. Starting December 11, the streaming giant is testing a beta feature called “Prompted Playlist.” Instead of just hoping the app guesses your mood, you can now type a specific instruction into a text box to get a tailored mix.
The concept is simple but powerful. When you open the feature, you see a prompt field. You might type something broad like “upbeat indie rock for a rainy morning” or something very specific about tempo and genre. The system then combines your written request with your entire listening history to build the list. Spotify claims this deep dive goes back to the very first song you ever played on the app, ensuring the recommendations actually match your long-term tastes.
You get plenty of control over how these playlists behave, too. You can tell the app to automatically refresh the list with new songs on a specific schedule. If you hit a creative wall and don’t know what to ask for, an “Ideas” tab offers suggestions to get you started. The most helpful addition is the context Spotify provides; every track comes with a short note explaining exactly why the algorithm picked it. This transparency helps you understand the music’s logic and lets you refine your future prompts.
This feels different from Spotify’s previous AI experiments. The focus now rests on active user control rather than passive listening. While earlier features tried to predict your taste in the background, this tool asks you to define it directly. It is currently available only in English, but the company plans to expand and evolve the feature as they gather more feedback.
Spotify isn’t alone in this shift toward manual control. Meta recently added tools to tune feeds on Threads and Instagram, while TikTok lets users reset their recommendations entirely. There is a bit of irony here. Tech companies spent years promising that algorithms would magically know what we want without us lifting a finger. Now, they are pitching “doing the work yourself” as a major upgrade.
