Spotify will soon let you create personal podcasts for anything

Spotify has been introducing useful new features for podcast lovers. After expanding its Verified by Spotify feature to podcasts, the streaming service is now announcing Personal Podcasts to let you create and listen to audio episodes tailored to your interests and listening habits.

The idea is similar to the platform’s Prompted Playlists, which it recently expanded to podcasts as well. You can select the new “Personal Podcast” option, type in a prompt for what you want to listen to, and it will create a podcast for you. These creations are private and get added to your library for easy access.

If you want to further fine-tune the podcast, you can upload PDFs, set the update frequency, and even select a voice. So, you can use Spotify to learn about a topic of interest, get a daily briefing personalized to your location and interests, and more.

The company’s demo showed a user asking for a daily brief including concerts that match their taste, daily weather, and tech headlines for the day. The app quickly created an audio episode including all those details.

All of this will use credits, and Spotify doesn’t clarify how many credits will be used per generation or how many will be offered free to its paying users. It simply said that a set number of monthly credits will be included, and users can purchase additional credits.

Personal Podcasts will start rolling out to Premium users in the US from next month.

The streaming service has also announced a new Studio by Spotify Labs desktop app that will let you create audio customized to your likes and interests.

However, it’s more than just creating audio based on your prompts. It can also access your bookmarks, gather data from your calendar, and build everything around that information. If you’re concerned about the privacy implications of such a feature, the company claims it only works with the user’s permission.

In an example shared by the streaming service, Studio by Spotify Labs was able to understand a request for a daily audio brief for a road trip through Italy using data from the user’s calendar and bookings. It also added suggestions for dinner spots and a podcast recommendation for the entire trip.

Studio by Spotify Labs will launch in the coming weeks as a research preview in more than 20 markets. The company hasn’t specified which regions are included.