Amazon Music is the second platform after Spotify to launch a playlist feature driven by generative AI. Currently, a select group of US customers of Amazon Music can access Maestro in beta on both iOS and Android devices.
After updating to the most recent version of the app, users who are part of the beta will see Maestro on their home screen. In order to build a new playlist, they can also use the tool by hitting the plus button.
The aim is to make any kind of playlist you can think of using natural language cues. You can use emoji, noises, actions, and even emotions as your cues. Amazon recommends that you ask Maestro to create a playlist of music that resemble the robot emoji; if this is the case, you’ll likely hear a lot of Daft Punk tunes. Other prompts the company suggests include “😭 and eating 🍝,” “Make my 👶 a genius,” “Myspace era hip-hop” and, bizarrely, “Music my grandparents made out to.” Ewwww.
Based on those ideas, it does seem that Maestro is more or less ready to handle whatever prompts you can throw at it, though Amazon notes that the tech is still in beta. As such, Maestro might not always get things right immediately. The company also says that it has safeguards in place to prohibit offensive language and inappropriate prompts.
Amazon plans to roll out Maestro more broadly over time. As things stand, Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can listen to Maestro playlists instantly and save them for later (or share them with friends). Prime members and users on the ad-supported free tier can listen to 30-second previews of their playlists before saving them.
Earlier this month, Spotify debuted a similar feature for Premium members in the UK and Australia. AI Playlist works in much the same way as Maestro.
