Jay Gilbert on Spotify DJ: ‘It accurately curated some great listening’

Last week Spotify launched an AI-voiced DJ, and we asked some industry veterans to share their initial impressions. So far this week, NUE’s Jesse Kirsbaum gave Spotify DJ a thumbs up, while From Emily White of Collective Entertainment and #iVoted expressed some real skepticism.

Today the prolific Jay Gilbert (Your Morning Coffee, Music Biz Weekly, Label Logic, and more) weighs in.

I grew up listening to the radio every day. I still listen to a lot of Apple Music Radio and SiriusXM. Don’t get me wrong, I have some amazing playlists I’ve spent many years building, but sometimes I like to be surprised and let someone else “drive.”

From Jay Gilbert

So having a host, virtual or not, can be a welcome change of pace.

Spotify’s DJ mode feels a lot like they took all of the great recommendations from Release Radar, Discover Weekly, etc., user insights from Spotify Wrapped, and applied Xavier “X” Jernigan’s voice.

With the wealth of data on millions of music listeners, it’s not surprising how well their recommendations work.  I listened to DJ Mode for hours to test it out. It handles skips well, brings up top tracks from previous years, and accurately curated some great listening.

My only complaint was with a few of the transitions. For example, I was listening to a killer selection from Ryan Adams, Jeff Tweedy, Radiohead, Ani DeFranco, The Accidentals, Owen Beverly, etc., then out of nowhere, it dropped in the Kaiser Chiefs’ “I Predict A Riot,” then an AC/DC track. Nope.

I love all kinds of music, but there is a time and place!

Overall, it was fun to hear the interstitial commentary, albeit a bit jarring at times. It would be cool to be able to pick out a voice of your choosing like you do can with your GPS turn by turn.