At Soundiiz, we’re tracking all the new features on streaming platforms. And we tell you all about it! This lets us stay ahead of the game and tell you how to get the most out of music streaming services. YouTube Music is open to updating its toolkit, and in recent weeks, Google’s platform has been given a facelift. Speed Dial and generative AI: what are YouTube Music’s new features? And how to make the most of them?
We explain it all in this article.
YouTube Music’s new features: Speed Dial
Before delving into the specifics of this new feature, let’s take a moment to appreciate the user-centric approach that YouTube Music has consistently adopted. In recent years, YouTube Music’s popularity has soared. And the Google-driven platform is steadily gaining ground on its competitors. What was once perceived as an extension of YouTube has now evolved into a full-fledged music streaming platform. It’s not just catching up with established services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, TIDAL, and others. But also surpassing them in the minds of some music fans.
In this spirit of constant improvement, YouTube Music has replaced a feature that its users moderately appreciated. It had been in testing for over a year, since September 2023. YouTube had teased this news with these words:
“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. Simply open the YouTube Music app, and right at the top of the Home tab, you’ll be greeted by your most listened-to music content, making it easy for you to jump back into your current favorites”.
Speed Dial: a new user experience
Instead of the traditional “Listen Again,” users now see the “Speed Dial” section. But what changes?
Speed Dial provides faster access to users’ favorite and most listened-to songs. It mixes the listening history and favorite songs in the library. Located in the Home section, it highlights nine songs that users have already listened to and offers the option, after a swipe, to see eighteen more. An effort has been made at the interface level. The traditional Listen Again Section required more effort to select additional songs, while the Speed Dial, by highlighting more references and allowing users to navigate between them more easily, totally rethinks the user experience.
With the Speed Dial feature, you can access up to 27 songs directly from the YouTube Music Home. This eliminates the need to search for songs you want to listen to and makes the process more efficient and enjoyable. You’ll be able to access your favorite musical moments with just a few taps, making the entire experience more immersive and personalized.
YouTube Music’s new features: Generative AI for artwork
Based on user feedback, YouTube has realized one thing: the artwork generated for the playlists its users create needs to be updated. Until now, they’ve only shown four images corresponding to four of the albums or songs in the playlist, even if the playlist is a thousand references long. So far, so good: most of YouTube Music’s competitors do the same thing. But Google’s service is looking to set itself apart, and to do so, it’s testing a new feature based on Artificial Intelligence.
By clicking on the playlist edit button, YouTube will offer various options and categories, ranging from humor, nature, animals, landscapes, food, and more. From these categories, YouTube will generate an image chosen by Artificial Intelligence, from which you can pick to represent your playlist best. Each photo can be customized and modified to make your playlist image unique.
Making YouTube Music stand out
YouTube Music’s strategy is simple: if users can count on beautiful artwork, they’ll be more inclined to share their playlists with friends and family and on their social networks. They will thus indirectly promote YouTube Music by becoming its ambassadors. In this way, YouTube Music hopes to pull the rug from under the competition. Proving that even the slightest technological improvements can make a big difference. Sometimes, the devil is in the detail!
This feature is currently being tested in the United States. But it should soon be rolled out worldwide, technology permitting, and if customer feedback is positive.
What about Soundiiz’s playlist generator?
Last year, we unveiled one of our favorite features to focus on in recent years: our AI playlist generator. And judging by your feedback and the number of uses, it’s safe to say you’ve enjoyed it!
It’s a long-term project, taking into account our experience in the world of streaming and tech and existing tools. Our tool combines technologies we’ve created ourselves and existing AIs. Click here to access a service that lets you design custom playlists generated by Artificial Intelligence.
You’ll then have several choices. You can write down what you’d like to listen to in black and white. And we’ll create a playlist to match. You can also choose tags like your favorite decade, genre, or mood. After analyzing these tags, we’ll propose a playlist based on these criteria. Our aim? To help you discover new things. It’s also possible to create lists of albums or artists, not just songs!
The beauty of our tool is that you can add these playlists to the platforms you listen to daily: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Amazon Music, and the rest! Our services are compatible with all of them.
The bonus? You can activate synchronization. This means that your playlist will be renewed as often as you like and automatically added to the platform of your choice.
A perfect complement to the tools developed by YouTube and mentioned in this article!
