By
Tolu Ajiboye
August 21st, 2023
While running pilot tests, Spotify worked closely with such podcasters as Dax Shepard, Monica Padman, Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons, and Steven Bartlett to generate AI-powered voice translations in several languages.
Audio streaming giant Spotify Technology SA has announced testing its new AI-powered feature. Backed by OpenAI’s newly revealed automatic speech recognition (ASR) system Whisper, Spotify’s Voice Translation feature allows translating podcasts into additional languages and keeping them in the podcaster’s voice, matching the original speaker’s style “for a more authentic listening experience”.
Ziad Sultan, VP of Personalization at Spotify, commented:
“By matching the creator’s own voice, Voice Translation gives listeners around the world the power to discover and be inspired by new podcasters in a more authentic way than ever before. We believe that a thoughtful approach to AI can help build deeper connections between listeners and creators, a key component of Spotify’s mission to unlock the potential of human creativity.”
While running pilot tests, Spotify worked closely with such podcasters as Dax Shepard, Monica Padman, Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons, and Steven Bartlett to generate AI-powered voice translations in other languages, including Spanish, French, and German, for a select number of catalogue episodes and future episode releases.
The following podcasts are already available in Spanish, with German and French versions upcoming: Lex Fridman Podcast – “Interview with Yuval Noah Harari”, Armchair Expert – “Kristen Bell, by the grace of god, returns”, and The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett – “Interview with Dr. Mindy Pelz”.
Voice-translated episodes from pilot creators will be available worldwide to both Premium and free users. Currently, more than 100 million people are using Spotify, and the company is waiting for their feedback for further improvements to the service.
Spotify Capitalizing on AI
With the rapid development of AI, companies started employing the tech to expand their range of services and grow their user bases. Spotify is not an exception.
Back in February, Spotify introduced AI DJ – an AI-powered music feature that considers your listening habits to suggest the tracks you would love. The service is a combination of Spotify’s personalization technology, which gives you a lineup of music recommendations based on what we know you like, generative AI through the use of OpenAI technology, and a dynamic AI voice platform from Spotify’s Sonantic acquisition completed in June 2022.
Initially, only US and Canadian users had access to Spotify AI DJ. In May, the company brought the experience to the UK and Ireland. In August, Spotify rolled out DJ in beta to more countries, bringing the total count to 50 destinations.
Notably, the launch of Spotify AI DJ has significantly boosted the company’s revenue and user base. As we reported in July, for the second quarter of 2023, the total revenue of Spotify grew by 11% year-over-year to €3.2 billion. Besides, Spotify’s monthly active users (MAUs) jumped 27% to 551 million, recording a net addition of 36 million. Spotify subscribers hit 220 million after growing 17% year-over-year (YoY).