Spotify takes on Google’s NotebookLM with its new app

Source: TechCrunch

Overview

Spotify is launching a standalone desktop app called Studio by Spotify Labs that lets users generate AI‑driven podcasts based on personal data such as email, calendar events, and bookings. The tool creates daily briefings or topic‑focused podcasts and saves them to the user’s private Spotify library, syncing across devices.

Key Features

• Topic‑based podcast generation – Users can ask the app to create a podcast about any subject.
• Personal context integration – The agent can pull information from a user’s email, calendar, and other personal sources to produce a customized audio brief.
• Multistep requests – Example: “Create a daily audio brief for my road‑trip through Italy. Walk me through my day using my calendar and bookings. Recommend a memorable dinner spot near where I’ll be. End with a podcast recommendation I’d love for the drive.”
• Web‑browsing agent – The app includes an AI agent that can browse the web to fetch additional information for the podcast.
• Private library storage – Generated podcasts are saved privately in the user’s Spotify library and are not publicly shared.
• Research preview – The app is currently in a research‑preview phase, available in more than 20 markets to users aged 18 +.

Availability

• Release mode: Research preview.
• Geography: Over 20 markets (specific countries not listed).
• Eligibility: Select users who are 18 years or older.

Competitive Landscape

Spotify’s Studio app competes directly with Google’s NotebookLM, which popularized podcast generation from selected source material. Related offerings include:

• Google’s daily podcast feature based on the Discover feed.
• Adobe’s AI‑driven podcast summaries for Acrobat.
• ElevenLabs’ NotebookLM‑style podcast generation tool.
• Apps such as Hero and Huxe that provide AI‑powered audio summarization and research assistance.

Related Spotify Initiatives

• Earlier this year Spotify released a command‑line tool for developers using Claude Code or Codex to create personal podcasts and add them to their Spotify library.
• The new Studio app extends this capability to non‑technical users, broadening Spotify’s reach into AI‑generated personal audio.

Future Possibilities

• Potential integration of more audio‑creation tools and deeper system‑audio capture, enabling use cases like Granola‑style note‑taking.
• Possible expansion into meeting‑note transcription, following trends set by startups such as Rewind and Cluely.

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