Wanna listen to Spotify in your local language? Streaming platform now testing AI-powered voice translation feature

Spotify, the audio streaming platform, is stepping up its game in the podcasting arena with a groundbreaking AI-powered tool, which allows creators to translate their episodes into different languages.
On Monday, Daniel Ek, Spotify's founder and CEO, announced this new feature with a post on his official LinkedIn handle, along with a video that showed the workings of this new feature.

He wrote, "We’re testing something new at Spotify! Starting today - a pilot group of podcasters can now automatically translate their podcast episodes into alternate languages - all while keeping it in their own voice. It’s called Voice Translation and uses AI to translate pods into Spanish, French and German. It’s pretty insane to hear. More languages and more podcasts to come soon! Let me know what you think."

Partnerships & Collabs

In a blog post, Spotify also shared that as part of the pilot, they have collaborated with bigwigs of the podcasting industry like Dax Shepard, Monica Padman, Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons, and Steven Bartlett.

They will be generating AI-powered voice translations in other languages—including Spanish, French, and German—for a select number of catalogue episodes and future episode releases.

The platform has also confirmed that comedian Trevor Noah's upcoming original podcast will use this automatic translation tool when it launches later this year.

How It Works?

Spotify has started trials for this AI-driven tool that leverages generative AI with the capability of preserving the original speaker's distinct style throughout the translation process. By using OpenAI's voice generation technology, Spotify aims to cater to a more diverse and global listenership.

Ziad Sultan, VP of Personalization at Spotify, said in the blog, “By matching the creator’s own voice, Voice Translation gives listeners around the world the power to discover and be inspired by new podcasters in a more authentic way than ever before.”

These translated episodes will be accessible to users on both Spotify's free and premium tiers.

Earlier, Spotify also introduced a new tool called 'Showcase,' which allowed artistes to promote their music directly to listeners on the platform's Home feed. Through Showcase, artistes can feature specific songs or entire albums as mobile banner ads, strategically targeting listeners across various markets.