Spotify confirms it’s testing a TikTok-style stream with music videos
Image Credit: Chris Messina
The mobile app’s new vertical Spotify feed uses Canvas videos to help listeners discover new music through short previews.
TikTok’s abbreviated vertical video stream has been copied by Instagram with Reels, YouTube with Shorts, and many other platforms. The next step could be Spotify. The new feature was first spotted by Chris Messinaa beta tester of Spotify for iOS.
The new Discover tab is in the navigation bar at the bottom, between Home and Search. Tap the icon to go directly to the stream. As seen in the video above, Discover is a vertical stream of music videos, which, much like TikTok, can be liked or scrolled to be ignored. Messina said Tech Crunch, tap the three dots to the right of the heart icon to view the full song. It looks like the videos are based on Spotify Canvas.
Canvas was first introduced by Spotify in 2019. The feature replaces static album artwork with a 3-8 second video loop on the mobile app’s Now Playing screen. According to Spotify, Canvas increases streams, shares, playlist additions, saves and profile visits among music with looping videos. With the stream only displaying tracks with Canvas, it’s now more important than ever to upload a video to accompany your track, as not only could it increase key metrics for those listening, but it could also introduce a whole new audience. to your music.
Tech Crunch contacted Spotify for more information on the feature, asking if they plan to roll out the feature further, if it will be available for iOS and Android, what markets they are planning, and more. Spotify declined to share details about the new feature, but confirmed via a statement that they were exploring the idea of vertical video streaming.
At Spotify, we regularly carry out a number of tests with the aim of improving our user experience. Some of these tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others just serve as important learning. We have no further news to share at this time.
As TikTok is with video discovery, Spotify Discover could be a great way for listeners to find new music and for artists to grow their audience. The feature is still in testing and there is no guarantee that it will make it into the final app update. This isn’t the first social media-influenced feature we’ve seen from Spotify. Last year, Spotify tested adding stories to playlists. Spotify Stories was never extended to all users.
Upload your own music to Spotify for free and learn how to add a canvas here.