It has been a busy week of music announcements for Spotify, with one more yesterday \u2013\u00a0but also a building story that is less positive for the company, and a leak about one of its potential future features focusing on musicians.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll start with the news. First,\u00a0Spotify\u2019s AI-powered DJ is getting smarter<\/a>\u00a0(in a linguistic sense) and also more responsive to listeners.<\/p>\n The Spanish-language version of DJ now accepts voice requests in Spanish, while both the English and Spanish-language versions can now accept requests via text prompts.<\/p>\n This follows Spotify\u2019s recent announcement of\u00a0an external integration with ChatGPT<\/a>, whose parent company OpenAI is also its technical partner for DJ. The more ways listeners are able to make requests and talk back to DJ, the closer the feature gets to becoming a fully-fledged music AI agent.<\/p>\n Now for the less positive story. Criticism of Spotify\u2019s decision to allow the US government to place recruitment ads for its controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on the service is getting louder.<\/p>\n Newsweek reported on growing chatter on social media<\/a>\u00a0from users who\u2019ve deleted Spotify\u2019s app in protest after hearing the ads.<\/p>\n The hubbub has got to the point where Spotify responded with an official statement. \u201cThis advertisement is part of a broad campaign the US government is running across television, streaming, and online channels,\u201d said its spokesperson.<\/p>\n \u201cThe content does not violate our advertising policies. However, users can mark any ad with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to help manage their ads preferences.\u201d<\/p>\n Spotify will be watching carefully to see whether any ICE-spurred boycott spreads to artists, particularly Latin American and LatinX artists who a.) are one of the most important communities for Spotify and b.) may have strong views on ICE given the furor\u00e9 around its immigration raids this year.<\/p>\n Finally, the leak \u2013 although it\u2019s a relatively minor one that is unlikely to spark chaos within Spotify. Jane Manchun Wong, who has made a name for herself digging through app code to uncover secret features,\u00a0published screenshots showing a new \u2018SongDNA\u2019 beta feature<\/a>\u00a0that shows the different musicians and composers involved in tracks.<\/p>\n The usual \u2018tests don\u2019t always become official features\u2019 caveat applies, but if SongDNA does progress from beta, it would be part of a longer-term drive by Spotify to present more-detailed credits for tracks.<\/p>\n