YouTube Music has unveiled a new AI-driven playlist generator for Premium subscribers on both iOS and Android. This innovative feature enables users to create personalised playlists by simply inputting text or utilising voice prompts to describe their music preferences, such as mood, genre, or specific concepts. Users can find this feature by tapping the “New” button within the Library tab of the YouTube Music app.
The announcement, made in February 2026, follows similar offerings from competitors like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Spotify rolled out its own text-prompt playlist functionality in December 2025, following beta tests of an AI playlist tool the year before.
This launch is part of YouTube’s broader strategy to enhance its Premium subscription services. In conjunction with this announcement, YouTube Music has begun restricting access to lyrics for certain free users.
Reports indicate that this change is an experimental measure affecting a limited number of ad-supported users, with most free users still able to access lyrics. Currently, however, free users can view only a limited number of lyrics before being prompted to subscribe.
YouTube Music plays a vital role in Alphabet’s growth strategy, with the subscription segment—including YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, and NFL Sunday Ticket—yielding approximately US$20 billion in annual revenue.
In its Q4 2025 earnings report, Alphabet disclosed 325 million paying users across Google One and YouTube Premium. During the earnings call, executives highlighted significant revenue growth in YouTube subscriptions, particularly in the Music and Premium segments.
Philipp Schindler, Alphabet’s Chief Business Officer, noted that transitioning users from ad-supported services to paid subscriptions might slightly impact ad revenue but would ultimately benefit the business. Anat Ashkenazi, CFO of Alphabet, attributed the increase in subscription revenues to heightened interest in AI-related initiatives.
Executives indicated that AI is transforming the YouTube experience for both creators and viewers. In December 2025, over 1 million channels were reportedly utilising YouTube’s AI creation tools daily. The introduction of the AI playlist generator complements other recent innovations, such as an AI music commentary feature launched in September through YouTube Labs.
This new “AI music host” offers voice commentary, anecdotes, and trivia between tracks on user-curated playlists, akin to Spotify’s AI DJ feature.
In 2024, YouTube Music also piloted an AI-generated radio feature and launched a song recognition tool that could identify tracks by humming, singing, or playing an instrument. These developments build on Alphabet’s MusicLM, an experimental AI model from 2023 that generates music from text or audio inputs.
