Spotify is doubling down on short-form video content, introducing a new feature called “Clips” for artists and a new home page with a vertical feed that looks similar to how TikTok presents videos.
The feature was announced on Wednesday at the company’s Stream On event. Spotify says on the Clips microsite, that, “Unlike other short video platforms, Clips appear in the same app where listeners can immediately stream your new releases and entire catalog.”
Spotify on Wednesday (March 8) also launched a new tool called Countdown Pages where artists can promote upcoming album releases through exclusive video clips, pre-save buttons, and track list previews. The feature also comes with a countdown timer for album releases.
With Countdown Pages, fans who pre-save an album release will receive a notification as soon as the album drops.
The music streaming giant says the new feature will allow artists and their teams to promote new albums in the same app where users stream them instead of having to work across multiple platforms and services, which Spotify says results in a “disconnect between where music is being teased and where music is actually being streamed.”
The Countdown Page for Ed Sheeran’s upcoming release is now live. Spotify plans to roll out the feature to more artists globally in the coming months.
Spotify Clips lets artists add videos of up to 30 seconds long to their album pages or artist profiles.
“Unlike other short-form video platforms, Clips on Spotify are attached to artist profiles and can be attached to tracks and albums – putting your music at the center of the experience so viewers can easily listen after watching your videos.”
Spotify
The company says Clips are “short, under-30-second vertical videos” that allow artists to “invite fans to your creative process”.
“Unlike other short-form video platforms, Clips on Spotify are attached to artist profiles and can be attached to tracks and albums – putting your music at the center of the experience so viewers can easily listen after watching your videos,” the music streaming company says.
Spotify’s announcement underscores how bullish the platform is on the video-sharing market.
“Every minute, people around the world stream one million hours of content online, with each individual watching an average of 19 hours of online video a week in 2022,” Spotify says, citing data from Statista.
The platform says it has become increasingly difficult for artists to break through the sea of content with the amount of videos being uploaded and watched online and on many of the most popular channels for social video, “music isn’t the priority.”
Spotify claims that Clips is the solution to this problem.
The platform will roll out the feature for “thousands of artists” this week and to more artists in waves throughout spring 2023.
Unlike Instagram Stories, Clips don’t disappear after 24 hours. Artists can use them to share the story behind a song, announce an upcoming release, feature a collaborator, or show off new merch.
“It’s an evergreen, always-on home for videos that deserve deeper storytelling and a longer shelf-life – not just a quick viral loop.”
Spotify
“It’s an evergreen, always-on home for videos that deserve deeper storytelling and a longer shelf-life – not just a quick viral loop,” Spotify said.
Meanwhile, topping Spotify’s announcements during its Stream On event on Wednesday is its redesigned home feed, which the company says is its “biggest evolution yet.”
The platform’s new mobile interface features a home feed that lets users scroll up or down to explore what it calls “Canvas clips” which spotlight artists’ visual canvases.
Users can preview tracks and save the songs playing on short Canvas clips straight to their playlists.
“The world today pulls us in a million different directions,” said Co-President and Chief Product & Technology Officer Gustav Söderström.
“So the most important thing we, at Spotify, can do for creators is to reduce the distance between their art and the people who love it . . . or who would love it as soon as they discovered it.”
Spotify’s efforts come as tech companies take TikTok’s formula in attracting and retaining users and as Spotify works to maintain its dominance in the streaming space amid reports that TikTok is close to launching its own streaming platform.
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