Home > Lifestyle

How to Interact With Spotify DJ for Better Music

By Crystal Crowder
Spotify DJ on desktop.

One of the best things about Spotify is having a DJ in the palm of your hand who works hard to understand who you are and what tunes make you tick. What’s even better is discovering you can interact with the Spotify DJ to get even better music to suit your mood and activity.

Spotify DJ Takes Voice Requests

A human DJ has been able to do one thing Spotify’s version can’t – take requests. At least until now. Spotify finally listened and gave users a way to request songs from DJ X. The best part is you simply use your voice.

You must be a premium Spotify user to access this feature. Currently, it’s available in 60 markets. If you don’t see the feature just yet, be patient as it’s rolling out to more users gradually.

Either search for DJ or tap Search -> Made for you -> DJ to open DJ. Then, long-tap and hold the small DJ button at the bottom right to turn on the voice request feature. Give Spotify access to your mic, otherwise, DJ can’t take requests. You’ll only need to give permission this one time.

Requesting music from DJ via your voice.

Give DJ your request when prompted. Get as specific as you want. Need something for work? Just ask DJ to play motivational music to keep you focused while working. Working through some major emotions? Ask DJ to create a soundtrack of emotional music perfect for crying to.

Of course, feel free to keep it simple. Ask DJ to play more from a specific artist or genre. Or, ask for a party or date night playlist. There are no limits to how many requests you can make.

The downside is you do have to use your voice. If you’re listening in public, be prepared for a few odd looks for suddenly audibly requesting music from your phone.

For now, you can’t request audiobooks or podcasts. You’re limited to music-only, but it’s still a nice upgrade from what DJ could do when it was first released.

If you can’t talk to the Spotify DJ right now, but still want to create a custom playlist for your mood, activity, etc, try creating an AI playlist. Spotify’s AI Playlist feature lets you type a prompt to create a unique playlist.

Tell DJ to Change It Up

Before voice requests, one of the best ways to interact with the Spotify DJ was to request a new set of music. DJ works by creating short playlists (3-5 songs) focused on a specific mood, year, genre, etc. Each playlist has its own theme. If something’s not hitting right for you at the moment, tell DJ to change to something new.

While DJ is playing, tap the DJ button at the bottom right. You don’t have any control on what comes next, but it’ll be something different from what you were listening to before.

DJ button to change music.

For example, DJ usually wants to toss in some Halloween-themed music in November since I listen to Halloween playlists in October. I find myself having to tap the DJ button for the first few weeks in November to get rid of the spooky tunes.

Skip What You Don’t Like

It’s a simple tip, but one that’s often overlooked. Just like with any playlist on Spotify, skip songs you don’t like. Use the Next button in the controls to skip to the next track. Skip several in a row and Spotify DJ jumps to the next themed group of music.

This is a good option if you’re driving and you don’t have access to the DJ button. A few quick skips and DJ understands you want something new.

Like, Follow, and Save

You can’t expect a DJ to know what to play if you don’t provide any feedback. The same is true with the Spotify DJ. Skipping songs is a good start, but to truly learn your tastes, you need to interact with the DJ a bit more.

Love a song you hear? Take a minute to like it by tapping the + button (it’ll be a green check mark if you’ve already liked it). This adds it to your Liked Songs playlist. Or, tap Change when adding a song to your Liked Songs list to add it to different playlists. This saves the song to any playlist(s) you choose. Just make sure you tap Done to save your changes.

Adding songs to playlists on Spotify.

The next step is to follow any artists you enjoy. I know you’re not going to want to follow every artist with a great song. After all, one-hit wonders are a thing. But, if you enjoy the majority of what an artist does, follow them. This tells Spotify and DJ to recommend more artists like this one.

If you don’t have Spotify premium or you’re just looking for something different, try these free music streaming services. You can even listen to free radio stations, including some with tracks from popular DJs.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox

Crystal Crowder Avatar
Crystal Crowder
Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.

Read next

In 2016, archaeologists dated two rings of snapped stalagmites in France’s Bruniquel Cave to 176,500 years ago, evidence that Neanderthals had walked 336 metres into darkness with fire and built architecture deep underground long before modern humans reached Europe
Otto von Bismarck was 74 when Germany adopted the world’s first national old-age social insurance program in 1889, setting the pension age at 70 after years of fighting socialists with bans, laws, and a promise few workers would live long enough to use
When cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov stepped out of his Soyuz capsule in March 1995 after 437 consecutive days aboard Mir, doctors recorded him at several centimetres above his pre-flight height, and his spine had become so unaccustomed to gravity that the recovery team carried him to a chair rather than risk the compression of letting him walk.
A contemplative scene with two scientists in a vintage laboratory setting.
When Harvard astronomer Cecilia Payne submitted her 1925 doctoral thesis arguing that the Sun was made almost entirely of hydrogen, the field’s senior figure Henry Norris Russell talked her into adding a line calling the result ‘almost certainly not real,’ and then published the same conclusion himself four years later to widespread acclaim.
When Edme Mariotte stared at marks on a wall in the 1660s, one mark vanished inside a six-degree hole where the optic nerve leaves the eye and the brain has been filling in wallpaper, sky, and faces ever since
When seismic waves from the Chicxulub impact reached what is now North Dakota roughly ten minutes after the asteroid struck, they appear to have triggered a ten-metre standing wave in an inland river that flung fish onto the bank and buried them under glass beads still falling from the sky.
When survivors near Lake Nyos woke on the morning of 22 August 1986, the cattle were dead in the fields, the birds had fallen out of the trees, and 1,746 of their neighbours were lying where they had stood the night before, with no fire, no flood, and no wound to explain it.
In 1959, a Soviet research team in Novosibirsk began breeding silver foxes for nothing but tameness, and within forty generations the animals had floppy ears, curled tails, piebald coats, and a bark, traits no one had selected for but which appeared on their own once fear was removed.