Spotify is bringing music videos to its streaming platform. The company announced that it is rolling out a “beta” music video feature with a limited catalog available initially in 11 markets around the world.
The music video integration allows Spotify Premium subscribers to watch official videos from supported artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, Ice Spice, Aluna, and Asake directly in the Spotify app. When playing an eligible track, users will see a “Switch to Video” button that will restart the song and begin playing the music video.
Videos can be viewed in the standard player window or rotated to fullscreen on mobile devices. There is also a “Switch to Audio” option to revert back to the standard audio playback mode.
For now, the music video functionality is limited to a handful of countries including the UK, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Kenya. Spotify says these initial markets were chosen based on factors like market size and availability of local artist content.
While only offering a “limited catalog” at this early beta stage, Spotify plans to expand its music video library to “thousands” of songs over time. The goal is to give artists another way to engage fans through immersive visual content in addition to audio streams.
Video is not an entirely new concept for Spotify, which already supports video podcasts and artist Clips. But this new dedicated music video experience represents a significant expansion into the visual realm for the platform best known for audio streaming.
