In an era where artificial intelligence fully penetrates work and life, companies are integrating services such as email, calendars, files, and notes to generate daily briefings, which may be in the form of text or audio. Spotify has also launched a new independent desktop application “Studio by Spotify Labs” in an attempt to occupy a place in this AI productivity wave.
Spotify launches new podcast creation app to challenge Google’s NotebookLM
Spotify announced that it has added a new feature to Studio that can “explore topics by creating podcasts.” As long as the user enters the content they want to know, the system will automatically generate a podcast and add personalized background information. Since it is almost impossible for an application in 2026 not to be equipped with an AI agent, Spotify has also built-in an AI assistant in Studio that can browse the Internet and read personal information, making the generated podcasts more relevant to the needs of users.
The tool’s capabilities go beyond topic exploration to create daily briefings or personalized podcasts based on your email, schedule, and other personal data. Users can even make complex multi-step requests, such as: “Create a daily audio briefing for my Italian self-driving trip; plan the day’s itinerary based on my calendar and room reservation information; recommend restaurants worth trying along the way; and finally select a travel podcast that suits my preferences.” Studio will string together these requests to generate a complete personalized audio content.
All AI-generated podcasts are automatically stored in the user’s Spotify library and synced across devices. These contents are for personal listening only and will not be released publicly. Spotify also reminds that Studio is still an early preview version, AI may make errors, and the generated content may not be completely reliable. Spotify said a preview version of the app will be available in more than 20 markets and will be open to select users aged 18 and over.
The new tool also puts Spotify head-on to compete with Google NotebookLM. NotebookLM began promoting the function of “generating podcasts based on specific materials” a few years ago, and Google continues to introduce new capabilities, such as automatically generating daily podcasts based on Discover dynamics. In addition to Google, companies such as Adobe, ElevenLabs, Hero, and Huxe have also adopted the method of presenting topics or daily summaries in the form of podcasts, forming an emerging trend.
It is worth mentioning that before launching the Studio desktop application, Spotify provided a command line tool that allowed users of AI coding tools such as Claude Code and Codex to quickly create personal podcasts and save them to the Spotify music library. Now, Studio allows users with non-technical backgrounds to easily enjoy the same capabilities, further lowering the threshold for creation. This release once again demonstrates Spotify’s ambition to fully expand the audio field. With the launch of desktop applications, Spotify will have the opportunity to integrate more podcast production tools in the future, and may even use the system audio capture function to create a note-taking tool similar to Granola. Although these directions are still speculative, with new companies such as Rewind and Cluely actively investing in the field of meeting notes and audio summaries, it is not impossible for Spotify to follow suit.
Source: KOCPC Chinese