The rollout, which is currently open to Alexa+ Early Access participants across all subscription plans, enhances how the company wants people to discover and interact with music.

Unlike the traditional Alexa that responded to straightforward commands, Alexa+ brings a more conversational and intelligent approach. 

It’s built to talk with users like a knowledgeable music companion, someone who not only takes requests but also understands curiosity. With Alexa+, users can dig into the details of songs, artists, or even eras of music. 

You can ask who influenced a particular artist, what a song means, or find that elusive track you only remember from a movie scene.

Amazon said it’s already seeing strong engagement from users testing the feature. Listeners who used Alexa+ explored three times more songs than those using the old version, and users asking for recommendations listened to nearly 70% more music. 

Those numbers show that people are no longer just pressing play; they’re conversing with their music app.

The feature’s conversational depth is what sets it apart. A user might say, “Play pop songs from the ’90s including Madonna, but skip the boy bands,” or “Make a playlist of 2010s hits that keep me moving fast, starting with a track from Nicki Minaj.” 

Alexa+ then builds dynamic playlists based on tone, tempo, and personal taste. You can even request something as niche as, “Create a music playlist that sounds like a Parisian café and only include songs in French.”

Beyond playlist creation, Alexa+ acts as a musical researcher in your pocket. It can explain the story behind lyrics, trace the origins of samples, or connect artists by genre or geography. 

Asking, “What’s the story behind the lyrics to Hotel California?” or “Recommend some artists from the London punk scene in the ’70s” now leads to detailed, conversational responses rather than robotic answers.

Spotify recently integrated similar conversational features, and Amazon’s move places Alexa+ as a competitor capable of deep engagement and contextual understanding.

The rollout also reveals Amazon’s larger investment in embedding intelligent systems across its ecosystem. Earlier this year, Alexa+ was unveiled as part of Amazon’s broader plan to bring “agent-level” assistance to everyday use, handling not just music, but tasks such as restaurant bookings and grocery orders.

For now, the new feature remains limited to early access users, but a wider release is expected soon. To try it, Amazon Music users can simply update their app, tap the “a” button in the lower right corner, and start talking.

Amazon says, “Alexa+ transforms the way we discover music by offering a more intuitive, conversation-based approach, turning what used to be a basic search function into an interactive discussion guided by your own curiosity.”

The company labels these updates as “Pick & Play,” “Search & Play,” and “Share & Play.” With Pick & Play, users simply hit play on the app to enjoy the exact song they want. Search & Play lets them type in a track and start listening immediately. 

Share & Play connects social media activity to Spotify, enabling seamless listening from Instagram Stories or Notes. Previously, free users could only shuffle songs with limited skips on mobile devices.

Spotify says these features will roll out globally, although certain restrictions will remain for free accounts that Premium users do not face. 

Other Premium-only functions, such as lossless streaming, AI-generated playlists, and Mix, will remain behind the paywall. Features like Messages and the personalised playlist “daylist” will continue to serve both free and paying users.

This comes as Spotify seeks to grow its ad revenue. CEO Daniel Ek recently told investors the company had been “moving too slowly” on monetising free users. 

Spotify aims for ads to account for 20% of total revenue but had reached only 11% by June. Making the free experience more appealing, Spotify could boost engagement and, in turn, expose more users to advertising.

Free users currently make up the majority of Spotify’s base. In the most recent quarter, the platform had 696 million monthly active users, 433 million of whom were free, ad-supported listeners, compared with 276 million Premium subscribers.

Spotify is also adding creative options for free users. They can personalise playlist covers with custom images, colours, text, and graphics, a feature now available in 128 markets worldwide. 

Daylist, a daily mood playlist, updates automatically to match listening habits throughout the day, helping users discover music tailored to specific times or moods.

For discovery, free users can explore playlists like Discover Weekly, which delivers a fresh mix of recommended tracks every week, and Release Radar, which updates with the latest releases from followed artists. 

Lyrics integration lets listeners follow along in real time, while sharing capabilities let users send songs and lyrics directly to friends on Instagram, WhatsApp, and more.

Spotify’s global update is an expansion of its free tier, offering more control, personalisation, and social connectivity. Free users will now be active participants in music discovery and sharing.

The update, which comes ten years after the launch of Discover Weekly, introduces interactive genre filters, starting with Spotify Premium users.

The streaming platform, which has often leaned heavily on algorithmic curation, is now handing some of that control back to listeners. Users will now see up to five genre options displayed at the top of the playlist interface, based on their listening history. 

Whether you’re stuck on 90s R&B or recently wandered into the world of funk or Afrobeats, these filters let you guide the playlist’s direction with a tap.

“Whether you’re in the mood for something familiar or want to switch things up, your playlist will instantly adapt to match your mood,” Spotify said. “Helping you discover new favourites and deep cuts from artists you already love.”

Discover Weekly, which updates every Monday, has remained one of the platform’s most successful features, generating over 100 billion streams to date. 

According to Spotify, 77% of the music streamed from these playlists comes from emerging artists. But user feedback in recent years has flagged issues, from repetitive recommendations to poor genre tagging.

Responding to this, Spotify told Business Insider in May that it had updated the playlist’s genre accuracy and recommendation logic. This latest tweak builds on those changes, giving users the ability to guide the algorithm rather than passively receiving suggestions.

Spotify has already begun rolling out the genre filters on mobile devices, starting with Premium subscribers. Users can find the new feature by heading to the “Made for You” hub and opening their Discover Weekly playlist, assuming they’re running the most recent version of the app.

In addition to the genre controls, Discover Weekly is also getting a visual refresh. The playlist will now feature a redesigned cover, aligning it with Spotify’s visual overhaul across its personalised features.

This update follows a string of personalisation experiments by Spotify in recent years. The company has introduced features like the “DJ” mode, playlist-building tools using text prompts, and a customisable queue system that reveals upcoming algorithmic picks. 

It also rolled out a “snooze” option, allowing users to temporarily silence tracks they’ve grown tired of without permanently removing them from future rotations.

But the core change here is control. For a long time, users could only like or skip tracks and hope the algorithm adjusted. Now, they can intervene more directly.