Give Spotify a listening brief with Prompted Playlists

Spotify’s Prompted Playlist lets listeners describe a selection they want to hear. Spotify says the feature draws on their listening history from the beginning of their account, alongside current music and cultural information. A prompt gives that recommendation process an explicit direction.[2]

The current support guide specifies Premium on mobile and English. Spotify’s April 2026 podcast expansion named the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden as rollout markets. Check for Prompted Playlist in your account before planning around it; this remains a beta feature.[1][3]

This is a documentation-based guide, with original prompts to adapt. No playlist was generated or auditioned for this article. Begin by naming the listening job: discovering unfamiliar performers, setting a background for an activity, or exploring a subject through spoken programmes. Each asks for a different kind of selection.

Write a brief you can judge by listening

Avoid changing every instruction after the first attempt. If the guitar selection is too familiar, make discovery more important. If its mood is wrong, describe that mismatch. Keeping a stable purpose gives each adjustment a reason; adding ever more adjectives can obscure what you actually want.

Create, inspect and refine

In the mobile app, open Your Library, tap Create at the top and choose Prompted Playlist. Enter the brief, choose a daily or weekly refresh if wanted, and tap Generate playlist. Each item includes a note explaining why it was selected; Notes toggles those explanations.[1]

Listen to enough of several entries to recognise the pattern. For podcasts, inspect the episode description and date too. A programme about a museum’s history may fit the subject generally while offering little about conservation. That is a useful reason to revise the request towards the work you wanted to understand.

Use Refine for track-level curation, or Edit prompt for broader changes and regeneration. Scheduled refreshes count towards the feature’s usage limits. Spotify says those limits may change during beta testing, so daily refresh is an available setting rather than an unlimited entitlement.[1]

Make the discovery continue

Podcast support, added on 7 April 2026, extends this approach to finding shows and episodes around an interest. Spotify describes combining listening history with signals such as trends and charts. That can open a new route into the catalogue, without requiring you to know a programme’s name first.[3]

Choose weekly refresh for a subject you intend to explore slowly. After listening, write down one promising artist, programme or question. Following that thread deliberately can be more satisfying than repeatedly replacing the whole selection. Your aim is to find something worth continuing with.

To share, choose Share → Copy link. Eligible Premium recipients in test markets can reuse the prompt to generate their own personalised selection. Free listeners can play the shared playlist but cannot personalise it or generate their own from that prompt.[1]

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