The news: Amazon Music added an AI “Explore” button for Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers.
The AI tool, currently in beta for select customers, gives smartphone app users a deep dive on artists’ backgrounds and inspirations. Users can then create custom playlists based on Explore results.
The new feature adds to Amazon Music’s 1-year-old Maestro AI, which can create playlists based on mood, genre, artist, and more. Spotify only recently added that option to its AI DJ.
Why it matters: Amazon has a lot of catching up to do in the music streaming market.
- Just 8% of digital audio listeners use Amazon Music most often, per SiriusXM Media, trailing Spotify (34%), YouTube Music (21%), Apple Music (13%), and Pandora (13%).
- Listeners across age groups spend an average of 49.7 hours per month on Spotify, compared with 0.8 hours a month on Amazon Music, per Comscore.