Spotify Expands Video Offering with New Upload Options for Artists

Spotify is rolling out full-length video uploads in beta in Spotify for Artists, enabling artists to upload live performances, acoustic or studio sessions, covers and official music videos directly to the platform.

Doesn’t Spotify already have videos?

• Yes, labels and distributors have been able to upload them for over a year.

• Now artists can upload videos directly via Spotify for Artists.

Why it matters:

• On one level, it further intensifies Spotify’s competition with YouTube, which has long been the dominant platform for long-form music videos.

• On another, Spotify claims that videos deepen engagement, with fans who watch a video likely to stream that song 64% more often over the following three weeks on average, and the artist’s catalog 57% more during the same period.

• In addition, full-length music videos are royalty-bearing and may be chart eligible.

Discovery:

• Once videos are uploaded, they can show up in Videos For You (Spotify’s first personalized video playlist) as well as editorial video playlists such as Today’s Top Videos, Live Performances, and Video Covers.

• The videos will be featured on the Video tab of an artist’s profile, and can also be found on Home, release pages, in the Now Playing view, and through fan push notifications.

Goodbye to Clips:

• To support this evolution of Spotify’s video strategy, it will be ending support for new Clips uploads.

• The Clips tab on an artist’s profile will transition to the Video tab, housing both music videos and previously uploaded Clips.

The fine print:

• Spotify’s initial focus is on videos tied to a specific song or release.

• Visualizers, lyric videos, multi-song concerts and videos without music can’t be uploaded.

• Video Uploads is not yet available to all artists, but they can join a waitlist.