ChatGPT reaches 800m weekly users and adds Spotify integration – Music Ally
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OpenAI has reached some significant new milestones with its ChatGPT service. “More than 800 million people use ChatGPT every week, and we process over six billion tokens per minute on the API,” CEO Sam Altman announced at the company’s ‘Dev Day’ yesterday.
And, like so many big tech services before it – Facebook, Spotify and others included – ChatGPT is entering its ‘I’m a platform for third-party apps’ phase now. That was one of Altman’s other announcements at the event – and Spotify is one of the first apps on board.
“Starting today, both Spotify Free and Premium users can bring Spotify into their ChatGPT conversations to receive personalized music and podcast recommendations,” was how Spotify described the partnership.
Anyone mentioning Spotify in a ChatGPT prompt will now be invited to connect their account, and after that they can ask for the chatbot to play specific songs, albums, playlists and podcast episodes – or ask it for recommendations based on a mood or theme. Track links will take people to Spotify’s app to actually listen.
Spotify is the only music partner at launch for ChatGPT, with other apps including Booking·com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia and Zillow. 11 more are on the way this year including Peloton, Uber, TripAdvisor, Target and OpenTable.
OpenAI will also be opening a submissions process for other apps, which could pay the way for other kinds of music experiences within ChatGPT. “We’ll also share details on monetization soon,” noted the company, hinting at a business model to come.
One notable thing about Spotify in ChatGPT is that it has the backing of Universal Music Group. A spokesperson for the major label sent Music Ally this statement after the news was announced.
“We’re supportive of these types of integrations as they offer a pathway for fans to connect with the artists they love as well as to move fluidly from discovery to enjoyment of new music—and all within a monetised ecosystem,” said the spokesperson.
“While it just scratches the surface of the enormous potential of AI, it’s a positive step forward that reinforces the principle that artists must be compensated for all uses of their music on all platforms.”
This is notable because UMG has been at the forefront of the music industry’s efforts to sketch out an ethical pathway for GenAI technologies – from its negotiations with startups and big AI platforms through to its policies on usage of AI tools by its own employees.
Wired has some good analysis of the bigger picture for OpenAI, quoting its head of product Nick Turley as saying the company “never meant to build a chatbot; we meant to build a super assistant, and we got a little sidetracked”.
Platformer attended the same briefing, and quotes Turley as saying “what you’re gonna see over the next six months is an evolution of ChatGPT from an app that is really useful into something that feels a little bit more like an operating system”.
History tells us that the apps-platform phase for big tech services is often followed by a ‘pull the rug out from all the people who’ve developed apps for your platform’ phase when priorities change.
Spotify knows that: it was on the platform side of this dynamic in 2014. That said, it will be hopeful that OpenAI is a solid partner. This is a continuing bromance between the two companies after all: in February 2023 Spotify used OpenAI’s technology to launch its ‘AI DJ’ feature.
Still, in a year we might be writing about ChatGPT shutting down all its apps integrations to do something else. Alternatively, we might be writing about how ChatGPT – and any rivals that follow suit – has become a powerful new entry point for music discovery and listening.
It’s a good time to start thinking about what the implications of that might be, whether you’re a big global streaming service or supportive major label through to individual artists and music marketers.
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