Spotify Announces New AI-Powered Features for Music, Podcasts, and Audiobooks Listeners

Spotify announced various new AI-powered features during its third Investor Day in New York City today. The company revealed a new licensing agreement with Universal Music Group that will allow Spotify Premium members to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs.

The streaming service also plans to launch new tools for creating personalized podcasts with AI. Self-published authors will also get access to new audiobook creation tools, and Spotify also announced a new Reserved experience in partnership with Live Nation for superfans looking to purchase concert tickets for their favorite artists.

New AI-powered features for podcast listeners

Starting today, Spotify Premium members in the US, Sweden, and Ireland can try asking questions about the podcast they’re listening to or watching. “Whether it’s clarifying a concept, exploring something mentioned in an episode, or getting recommendations related to their favorite creators, they can delve deeper without leaving Spotify, the company explained.

Earlier this month, Spotify said it was welcoming personalized podcasts created with OpenClaw, Claude Code, or OpenAI Codex that pull information from both online sources and local files. “The response has been strong, making it clear that there’s growing demand for this kind of personalized, on-demand experience,” Spotify said today.

Wondering what’s next for podcasts on Spotify? Here are some of our newest features coming soon. pic.twitter.com/FNWlAlQBJr

— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) May 21, 2026

Next month, Spotify Premium users in the US will be able to create Personal Podcasts using the upcoming Studio by Spotify Labs app. This standalone app, which will launch as a research preview, will be able to create a personalized daily briefing, an audio discussion about a specific topic, and more from a simple text prompt complemented with optional sources (local or offline). These Personal Podcasts will also include links to original podcasts for diving deeper into a specific subject.

We’re introducing Studio by Spotify Labs, a new app that can create personalized podcasts, playlists, and daily audio briefings from a simple prompt 💚 pic.twitter.com/uOfhHxO2B6

— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) May 21, 2026

Audiobooks updates

Starting today, audiobook listeners can now ask Spotify for audiobook recommendations. Later this summer, the Prompted Playlist feature that already lets Premium users describe the type of music or podcasts they want to listen to will add support for audiobooks. It will be able to provide a personalized audiobook playlist that takes into account personal tastes as well as popular trends.

Spotify also plans to launch new tiers for its Audiobooks+ subscription for listeners who need a higher monthly listening quota. New Family and Student plans for Audiobooks+ are also coming later this year.

Lastly, the Spotify for Authors portal is adding support for French, Canadian French, German, Dutch, Latin American Spanish, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian today. Next month, authors will also get access to new Audiobook Creation tools in beta to create audio versions of their books using ElevenLabs’ digital voice technology.

More hours, more discovery, more story time. Here’s what’s coming for books on Spotify 📚 pic.twitter.com/6N6ZJ6tiGt

— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) May 21, 2026

Fan-made covers and remixes

After striking a landmark licensing agreement with Universal Music Group, Spotify will launch a new tool allowing Premium users to create AI-powered covers and remixes of eligible songs from participating artists. The new AI tool will be available as a paid add-on for Premium subscribers, and it will also allow artists to earn additional revenue.

“Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next. What we’re building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part,” explained Alex Norström, Co-CEO, Spotify.

Reserved tickets are coming to Premium users in the US

Lastly, Spotify announced today Reserved, a new Premium perk that will give the most dedicated fans of an artist a reserved window to purchase two concert tickets for their concert. Reserved offers will be based on the artist’s tour locations, and eligible superfans will receive an email and an in-app notification to purchase up to two concert tickets during a short timeframe (about a day).

“We’ll identify real fans based on factors like streams, shares, and other Spotify activity, and will also monitor the activity of Premium users to ensure these are real human fans and not bots,” the company explained. Spotify Reserved is launching first in the US this summer, with more markets to follow at a later date.