Spotify is making a significant leap beyond its traditional audio offerings by introducing music videos. The streaming giant is launching a beta program that grants premium subscribers access to music videos across mobile, desktop, and TV platforms for a curated selection of tracks by popular artists like Ed Sheeran and Ice Spice.
Sten Garmark, Spotify’s vice president and global head of consumer experience, stated to TechCrunch, “We’re kicking off with a limited subset of the full catalog, which includes thousands of music videos. Within this subset, we aimed to prioritize a wide range of genres and artists across our launch markets.”
YouTube and Apple Music already provide music video content, so this new feature positions Spotify to compete more effectively with its major rivals.
To view a music video, Spotify users listening to a song can simply click “switch to video” directly on the now-playing screen. Although the music video always begins the song from the start, users can seamlessly switch back to audio at any point. Even if the music video plays through, Spotify will continue queuing the next song as audio only.
Currently, the beta option is accessible in 11 countries, selected based on various criteria including market size and local content support, as explained by Garmark. While the US did not make the initial list, the chosen countries represent a diverse global audience: Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Sweden, and the UK. Moreover, users in these regions must have a premium account to access music videos.
Speculations about Spotify incorporating music videos emerged last July following a series of layoffs (with more since). This recent announcement marks the first official acknowledgment of music videos on the platform. However, a Reddit user had previously posted three months ago about encountering the “switch to video” option on a single song: “My Way” by Limp Bizkit.
