That is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a publication on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and leisure, syndicated only for The Verge subscribers as soon as every week.
Prepare for lots extra video content material on Spotify. Someday later this month, the service will begin incorporating music movies into its app, and provides US-based subscribers the flexibility to simply swap backwards and forwards between audio and video variations of many standard songs.
And Spotify isn’t stopping there. “We’re not simply constructing options; we’re making a best-in-class video expertise to rival the largest gamers, like YouTube or TikTok,” the corporate declared in a current job itemizing. Spotify is evolving “from an audio-first platform to additionally develop into a world-class video service,” that job itemizing states.
Spotify’s enlargement into music movies comes after the corporate struck licensing agreements with the key labels and the Nationwide Music Publishers’ Affiliation this fall that particularly included provisions for audiovisual rights.
“These offers safe broader video rights that we’ve lengthy wanted,” defined Spotify’s chief enterprise officer, Alex Norström, on the corporate’s most up-to-date earnings name final month. “This was a crucial strategic goal for us as a result of it unlocks our potential to innovate and launch extra merchandise and options.”
Spotify has additionally been busy including different types of video content material, with Norström revealing throughout the identical earnings name that it now has near half 1,000,000 video podcasts and reveals on its platform. Greater than 390 million customers have streamed video podcasts on Spotify, and time spent watching movies has greater than doubled 12 months over 12 months, based on Norström.
MIDiA Analysis managing director Mark Mulligan believes Spotify’s embrace of video is an indication of the instances for the net music enterprise, which is beginning to hit a ceiling in Western markets. “Music streaming is coming into an optimization part,” Mulligan says. “The final 10 years have been about development; the following 10 will probably be outlined by consolidation.”
With most customers who’re prepared to pay for music already subscribed to a streaming service, Spotify’s focus has to shift to rising its share of viewers time, to retaining paying subscribers, and to raised monetizing these on its ad-supported tier. Meaning the service isn’t simply competing with Apple Music and different music streaming companies anymore, however with the rest occupying our eyes and ears, whether or not that’s TikTok, Netflix, and even video video games.
Spotify can also be at an obstacle as a result of music tends to be a background medium for many individuals, argues Mulligan. “Including video helps Spotify enhance consideration,” he says. “Of all leisure codecs, music is the one customers are least prone to be taking note of — slightly below a 3rd are targeted on the music they’re listening to when streaming. Including video instructions extra of the senses and subsequently consideration.”
There’s one platform that has already nailed this mixture of music and video: YouTube. The Google-owned video service has lengthy been the most well-liked vacation spot free of charge music, with MIDiA discovering in a client survey this summer season that 67 % of customers watch music movies on YouTube month-to-month in comparison with 45 % that stream music free of charge and 37 % which have a music subscription.
Plus, YouTube has its personal music subscription service in YouTube Music, which is benefitting from its tight integration with the positioning’s huge video catalog. “It’s a visible medium in an leisure world outlined by video,” Mulligan says. “YouTube [Music] can also be the one different international participant than Spotify that’s rising at tempo. So, although it isn’t the largest competitor to Spotify, it’s in all probability essentially the most critical challenger at current.”
In mild of all this, Spotify is prepared to strike some uncommon alliances to develop its personal video viewers. The corporate introduced a take care of Netflix to deliver The Invoice Simmons Podcast and different Spotify podcasts to the video service in October. It’s not the one partnership of this type: Spotify has additionally teamed up with Samsung, which is syndicating a free, linear streaming channel preprogrammed with episodes from Spotify podcasts like The Dave Chang Present and The Rewatchables.
Along with further income, Spotify additionally expects these offers to generate further curiosity in Spotify podcasts, which might then result in extra eyeballs flocking to Spotify itself.
The large query is now: How far is Spotify prepared to go in its embrace of video? Would the corporate ever open up the floodgates and permit anybody to add their very own clips like YouTube and TikTok do?
The corporate declined to remark when requested about its plans for video going ahead, however I wouldn’t maintain my breath for Spotify going full TikTok. Permitting you, me, and my conspiracy theory-loving uncle on Fb to add our unfiltered rants to the service would include huge copyright and content material moderation challenges.
Nonetheless, the traces between amateurs {and professional} creators proceed to blur. Spotify already permits artists to add Reels-like 30-second vertical video clips. The corporate additionally added such clips from podcasters and audiobook authors to its 2025 Spotify Wrapped.
The logical subsequent step could be to onboard choose music influencers, believes Thematic COO Audrey Marshall. “Music curators have develop into a few of the hottest creators on [TikTok], with their frequent tune, artist, and playlist suggestions driving new music discovery throughout all genres and niches of music,” Marshall wrote in a current weblog put up.
That’s even supposing TikTok itself isn’t the very best driver of such suggestions. “Proper now, in an effort to get a TikTok music curator’s newest artist suggestions, you could open TikTok, hopefully be beneficial their content material in your feed, watch their video, depart TikTok and open Spotify to lookup the artist, and so on. and so on.,” Marshall wrote. “Wouldn’t it’s that rather more efficient to see this video straight inside Spotify after which merely click on to play the artist’s music instantly?”
Whether or not Spotify follows Marshall’s advice or not, it’s more and more sure that video will probably be a key a part of Spotify’s future — on telephones, TVs, and every part in between.
