YouTube Music is testing an AI-generated radio feature and adding a song recognition tool | TechCrunch

YouTube Music is introducing two new ways to boost song discovery on its platform. YouTube announced on Monday that it’s experimenting with an AI-generated conversational radio feature, and rolling out a new Shazam-like tool to help users discover the name of a song by singing, humming or playing parts of it.

The new AI-generated conversational radio feature in YouTube Music is rolling out to select Premium users in the United States. Users who have access to the feature can create a custom radio station by describing what they want to hear. For instance, you could ask for “catchy pop choruses” or “upbeat pop anthems.”

The launch of the experimental feature doesn’t come as a surprise, as 9to5Google reported last week that YouTube Music was beginning to test it.

YouTube Music’s new feature is somewhat similar to AI playlist generation tools currently being tested by Spotify, Amazon Music and, now, as of Monday, Deezer. All four music streaming services are introducing ways to give users the ability to enter written prompts in order to generate a personalized listening experience.

Users who have access to the new feature will start to see a new “Ask for music any way you like” card in the app’s home feed. Once you click on the card, the app will open a conversational UI where you can enter a custom prompt or select a suggested one.

While the feature is currently only available for select users, YouTube says it will bring it to more users in the future.

As for the new song recognition feature, YouTube Music users can now search the app’s catalog of songs by sound. Now, when you tap “search” in the app, you will see a waveform icon that will notify you that you can find the name of a song by singing, humming or playing it.

While Shazam is arguably the most famous song recognition tool, YouTube Music’s new feature goes a step beyond Shazam as it allows you to find the name of a song by humming or singing it, whereas Shazam only works if you play the actual song.

YouTube Music’s song detection tool, which was first available to select Android YouTube Music users earlier this year, is now officially rolling out to all users across iOS and Android.