YouTube Music rolls out new features! AI artwork for custom playlists, Speed Dial, more

YouTube Music has made a massive announcement revealing new features that the platform is either rolling out or will do soon. According to the company, YouTube Music has more than 2 billion monthly users who listen to over 100 million official songs, along with live performances, music videos, remixes, podcasts, and other YouTube exclusive music. These new features have been added keeping their feedback and overall experience in mind. One of the major highlights is a new generative AI feature, through which users can create artwork for their custom playlists.

The AI feature in particular is interesting as before this, playlists just showed the artwork from the first four tracks in a grid view. But now, users will be able to add the image they like using AI. Announcing this feature, T. Jay Fowler, director of product management, at YouTube Music, said in the official blog, “Starting today, we’ll begin rolling out a new experimental feature for English language US users on YouTube Music that creates customized playlist art using generative AI”.

This feature is experimental, which means it is still being tested. The company has released it only in the US for now, but it should be expanded to other regions soon. The feature is quite similar to the AI wallpaper feature on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, where users can select from different categories and then use a pre-written prompt, where they can change certain words to generate new images in different styles. For now, the categories provided include Colors, Cycles, Travel, Moods, Nature, Animals, Landscapes, Food and Drinks, Fantasy, Workout, and Humor.

YouTube Music new features

Apart from this, another interesting feature is Speed Dial, which is essentially a redesign of the ‘Listen Again’. As per YouTube, it will allow users to quickly jump back to the music they have on repeat. This is being placed in the Home Tab. But it will not be available for a while. The blog said, “In the coming months, we’ll be launching a new feature on the Home tab that will help you quickly explore and listen to the songs and artists you’ve got on repeat”.

Earlier, users would see 20 items presented in a carousel, but now, 9 items in a grid of 3x3 have been given. They can include songs, albums, and playlists. Tapping on an item immediately begins playing in a mini player, and not in a full view window.

The post also highlighted some recently added features for users such as a dedicated comments feature for YouTube Music, timed lyrics, Create a Radio, and the Samples tab.