Music streaming platforms have revolutionized the way we listen to music. One of the key features that make these platforms so popular is their use of sophisticated algorithms to recommend songs to users.

Each week Spotify generates a personalized playlist just for me. They take my listening data and behavior to suggest songs that I’m likely to enjoy. I must admit that these recommendations are quite spot-on. Thanks to “Discover Weekly”, I keep discovering so many tracks that I genuinely like.

And when I manually create my playlists for a certain mood or occasion, there’s the “Enhance” button. One click and Spotify fills up my playlists with algorithmically-generated songs that match the vibe of the tracks in the playlist. Cool!

With all that hype around ChatGPT and its capabilities, I was naturally curious if this technology can be used to create personalized playlists. Will its recommendations be as good as the ones I get from Spotify?

I battle-tested this recent OpenAI technology to find out if it’s a good tool to create playlists. Here are the results!

1. How ChatGPT Works: Differences between ChatGPT and Spotify algorithms

Let's start with the fact that ChatGPT and Spotify's algorithm use different approach to generate song recommendations.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model that uses natural language processing to generate responses based on user input. With its ability to understand language and generate responses, ChatGPT can be trained on large amounts of data to create personalized playlists.

Users can interact with ChatGPT through a chat interface and input their preferences and mood. For example, a user could ask ChatGPT to create a playlist for a workout or a road trip, and the model would generate a playlist of songs that are suitable for the occasion. A user can also feed ChatGPT with a few songs or artists and ask for similar recommendations. This sounds like a great hack to quickly creating playlists without having to spend time curating them manually.

As for Spotify, its algorithm uses a combination of collaborative filtering and content-based filtering to analyze the user's listening history, saved songs, and playlists, as well as other users with similar listening habits, to create playlists that cater to the user's preferences. The algorithm also takes into account factors such as the time of day, mood, and activity to provide personalized recommendations.

2. I asked ChatGPT to create a playlist. Here are the results.

2.1 Prompt: Create a melodic techno playlist that could soundtrack space travel 🚀

Since ChatGPT works better when you feed it with specific information, I started with a detailed prompt that included a genre and vibe of the playlist.
I was excited to see Tale Of Us, Mind Against and ARTBAT on the list as these are my favorite artists. However, most of these songs don’t even exist! Disappointing.

Results: Mediocre.

2.2 Prompt: Create a playlist that would make a great space travel soundtrack.

Since ChatGPT had trouble with the electronic music genre, I removed this from the input. The results were far better. However, it seems that ChatGPT only suggested songs that were explicitly about space. A bit simplistic approach, but OK.

Results: Fine.

2.3 Prompt: Create a breakup anthem playlist. Include songs similar to “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus 🌸 Pick songs that are empowering.

Next, I asked for a specific playlist theme (breakup songs that are empowering), feeding ChatGPT with a sample song.
It suggested some very popular tracks. I didn’t discover any new tunes, but it did a decent job at picking the songs that would fit the playlist.

Results: Fine.

2.4 I asked ChatGPT to fill up my playlist with similar songs.

Since Spotify has the “Enhance” button that fills your playlists with similar tracks, I wanted to see if ChatGPT can do the same. I ran two tests - one for electronic music, which clearly it’s not its strongest genre, and some pop music. For electronic music, it confabulated again. As for the pop songs, it suggested songs that weren’t what I was hoping for. Another point goes to Spotify.

Results: Mediocre.

3. Limitations of Using ChatGPT for Playlist Creation

I ran some other tests on ChatGPT to confirm my findings. The results are not very encouraging:

The biggest disadvantage of ChatGPT for playlist creation is that it… straight up lies to you by giving false information (a.k.a non-existing songs).

I noticed that if the prompts are too sophisticated (e.g. Japanese synthwave tracks for space travel 🇯🇵🪐), ChatGPT might not have the capacity to recommend such specific tracks. It will give you made-up songs, but the artists will likely fit the vibe you’re looking for.

I’d say that ChatGPT might be a good tool if you want to get away from your usual genre or taste. While Spotify keeps us in our feedback loop (recommending songs that fit our specific taste), Chat GPT can be used to find beats out of our box (think French hip hop, medieval lo-fi, or cat music).

Also, if you ask ChatGPT for some generic playlists (workout playlist, road trip playlist), it will do a decent job.

3.1 I asked ChatGPT if it can surpass Spotify algorithm recommendations

This is what it said:

“While ChatGPT has the potential to generate highly personalized recommendations, it may not have access to the same level of data as Spotify's algorithm, which can limit its effectiveness. Additionally, Spotify's algorithm has been refined over years of development and has access to vast amounts of data, which makes it highly effective in generating song recommendations.”

As you can see, ChatGPT itself admits that Spotify’s algorithm is superior. I appreciate the honesty, but it makes me wonder why ChatGPT decided to provide false information when giving me songs suggestions...

4. Other uses for ChatGPT for playlist creation

While ChatGPT struggles with music recommendation, I found out that its language processing abilities make it a great tool for generating playlist names and descriptions.

If you have trouble coming up with a name for your playlist, ask ChatGPT to generate some ideas. For example, you could say, "Suggest some names for a workout playlist" or "I'm making a playlist of indie rock love songs. Can you help me come up with a name and description that captures the vibe?”

You can throw in some words you want ChatGPT to use. You can also feed ChatGPT with the songs you have in your playlist and ask it to suggest a fitting name.

ChatGPT can analyze the songs, as well as your input, to generate a name and description that fits the bill.