There's something sacred about building a playlist.
It's not just dragging songs into a queue. It's about constructing a perfect atmosphere, like a pillar of solid emotional architecture. Music plays a transformative role in soundtracking our lives. Certain melodies can bring us back to a particular moment in our history. A lyric can hit us right in the gut like a sucker punch. A song can remind you of home or make you feel closer to a special person who's away. A good playlist isn't about algorithmic compatibility. It's about instinct and, in many ways, love.
Now, apparently, ChatGPT can do it for you.
At OpenAI's Dev Day last month, CEO Sam Altman introduced the company's latest App SDK, which lets developers plug their services directly into ChatGPT. One of the first integrations is Spotify, along with Zillow, Coursera and others. The idea is that you can ask ChatGPT to "make a playlist for a dinner party," or any other occasion, and it'll pull songs straight from Spotify, without any clicking, thinking or curating required.
Read more: Spotify's Free Tier Changes: Play the Song You Want Whenever You Want
Of course, I didn't want to knock something without trying it first.
When I clicked into ChatGPT, I simply started typing "Spotify" in the box, and the interface recognized the app. I led with the prompt: "Spotify Can you help me make a playlist for a Friendsgiving party? I need a playlist that is mostly catered to people in their mid-20s to 40s, but isn't too specific to one genre or artist."
Once I hit enter, ChatGPT asked me to log into my Spotify account and agree to allow ChatGPT access to my account, which I really hated to do. (I immediately revoked access after this exercise.)
It put together a "Friendsgiving Party Mix" that leaned heavily into 2000s and 2010s pop music. Like, literally every single song was a pop song. The playlist included some songs and artists that I love (HOT TO GO! and party 4 u, especially), but most on the list are songs I rarely, if ever, listen to because I just don't like them that much or think they're overplayed. Sorry, Benson Boone.
I've heard all of the songs on this list. Yet there's probably only two on the list that'd I'd actually play for my party guests. Macy Meyer/CNET
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