The feature uses artificial intelligence technology to analyze the music you listen to, your preferences, and your current mood, then offers similar and new songs you may enjoy in your stream, paired with the songs you already love.
Spotify rolled out its AI DJ product in the United States and Canada on February 22, 2023.
Spotify
But the tool, which launches in the US and Canada in early 2023, does more than create custom playlists: it also talks to users in between songs, offering fun facts and personalized commentary about the artist or genre you’re listening to.
That’s where Jernigan comes in. Its AI DJ voice makes users feel like they have their own personal DJ in their pocket.
“With AI, it’s now a digital version of me recommending great songs to people and providing the context and storytelling behind them,” Jernigan told CNBC Make It.
Jernigan is no stranger to having his voice heard by millions of Spotify users: He previously hosted a number of original podcasts, including Spotify’s first morning show, “The Get Up,” which he said garnered more than 6 million listeners before it ended in April 2022.
A few months after “The Get Up” ended, Spotify’s head of personalization approached Jernigan about a new product the team was developing: an AI-powered DJ.
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Initially, the product had a placeholder voice, but the team wanted it to “sound more like X,” he says, so they approached him and asked if he’d be interested in being the voice model for the AI DJ.
“What was great about that conversation was that we were creating a partnership between me and Spotify to create a product that reflected not only my voice but my personality,” Jernigan says.
Jernigan said Spotify’s head of personalization approached him about being the voice model for the AI DJ.
Spotify
The team knew that Jernigan would not only bring his innate love of music to the product, but he would also be able to infuse the tools with music industry knowledge and personal insights he gained during his previous stints at major music labels such as Def Jam Recordings and Republic Records.
“I really understood how to introduce artists to the world in a way that would get them noticed, get them excited, and turn casual listeners into fans,” he says. “That gave AI DJ a sense of authenticity and credibility.”
Additionally, Jernigan said he wanted his team to utilize the deep knowledge of the business side of the music industry he gained from earning an MBA from Florida Agricultural and Technical University and a master’s in music business from New York University.
“I joke that I’m one of the few people who uses my degree every day,” he says.
Spotify is using technology from Sonantic, a dynamic text-to-speech AI voice platform it acquired in 2022, and OpenAI to power its AI DJs.
In the early stages of training the product, the team collected about 300 episodes of “The Get Up,” isolated tracks of Jernigan’s audio and fed the data into the AI DJ, which could then analyze and understand his delivery style, pitch, pace and emotion.
Jernigan also keeps a notepad on his phone that lists phrases he uses in everyday conversations when talking about music.
In doing so, the AI DJ will learn how to speak like him, while also learning how to mimic his natural way of speaking and describing music, and will be able to use that understanding to generate realistic-sounding audio output.
“So it sounds a lot like me,” he says. “Other voice models tend to train on a bunch of voices and then layer on top, but this model is trained entirely on my voice, which makes it so accurate.”
Training the AI DJ also involves recording sessions, which Jernigan says are similar to voice acting, except Jernigan reads lines and scripts as himself. He tries to sound as natural as possible during the recording sessions so the AI model can learn how to mimic his natural vocal inflections.
Jernigan trains the AI DJ how to mimic his natural speaking patterns.
Spotify
“You have to be precise because you have to teach the speech model what a period sounds like, a pause sounds like, a comma sounds like,” he says. “If there’s a T at the end of a word, you have to make sure you type the T, because if you don’t, you could train the speech model to pronounce the word incorrectly.”
Jernigan meets weekly with a team of writers, music experts and data curators from around the world to ensure the model stays up to date with the latest trends and music news.
For example, when rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake released several songs dissing each other between April 30 and May 5, Jernigan’s team updated the AI DJ with information about the songs and background on each artist to help listeners keep up with the rapid-fire rap battle.
Now that the AI DJ can accurately mimic his voice, when such moments occur, Jernigan works with his team of writers to get that information into the model as quickly and accurately as possible.
“Cultural music experts working on the ground can tell the AI what’s going on in the world,” he says, “which helps bring the AI DJ experience to life.”
Spotify’s AI DJ was first introduced in the US and Canada in February last year and is now available in 68 markets globally, including Australia, New Zealand, and select markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, the company said.
Jernigan said he was initially nervous about how the public would perceive him and the AI DJ, but his concerns disappeared once he began to see that Spotify users were enjoying the product.
“People have recognised me on the streets of London and Sydney, Australia,” he says. “It’s the honour of a lifetime. The love people are showing for the app means they feel like they’re really connecting with the human behind the AI DJ.”
Jernigan says being embraced around the world as the voice of Spotify’s AI DJ has been a humbling experience.
Spotify
Spotify continues to develop its original AI DJ.
On July 17, the company unveiled DJ Livi, a Spanish-speaking AI DJ modeled after the voice of the company’s senior music editor, Olivia Quiroz Roa.
Spotify Premium users in select markets now have the option to switch between listening to music commentary in Spanish with DJ Livi and music commentary in English with DJ X.
“Offering a Spanish version of DJ is a natural next step in our product evolution, and we look forward to introducing Livi to people around the world,” Spotify said in a blog post.
But as the product expands, Jernigan says listeners needn’t worry that his voice, or DJ X, will fade away anytime soon.
“We’ll continue to innovate and improve, but I expect I’ll be the voice for a while,” he says.
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