Spotify Video Expansion Continues With ‘Full Ecosystem’ Launch

Photo Credit: Spotify

A month and change after announcing expanded support for full-length videos, Spotify has doubled down by launching a “video ecosystem” that includes a pitching tool and its first chart dedicated exclusively to music videos.

Spotify disclosed the latest components of its aggressive video buildout today, after enabling direct cover, studio session, live performance, and music video uploads in mid-June. Still in beta, the direct-upload option is being offered to “nearly 100,000 artists” at present, according to the platform.

And in theory, those artists have the chance to place their videos on “over 100 video playlists available across the globe,” among them “Today’s Top Videos” and “Best New Videos,” the DSP reiterated.

(The personalized “Videos for You” as well as “ICONIC MUSIC VIDEOS,” “90s Video Hits,” and “Northern Nostalgia” are also part of the video playlist madness. According to its description, Northern Nostalgia compiles “iconic Canadian tracks and visuals you’ll never forget.”)

In practice, however, finding spots could prove difficult. This reality aside, artists can utilize the just-released pitching tool to forward music videos – “either unreleased or released within the past 7 days” – to Spotify’s editorial team, per the service. Meanwhile, though the aforementioned music video chart is, of course, powered by straight play volume, it may be similarly tough to crack.

Entitled “Music Video Charts – Global,” said chart is being dominated out of the gate by K-pop artists, who are commanding about one-third of the 50 overall spots. Moreover, thanks to ever-passionate Army diehards, BTS alone is occupying six of the top-10 positions.

These facts tie back to an interesting question: In general, just how much Spotify user (and especially subscriber) interest is there in music videos? Can the platform, in many ways geared towards background listening, put a dent in YouTube’s dominance?

Answers will take some time to materialize, but for now, it’s clear that Spotify’s music-specific video support is quickly evolving beyond brief Canvas spots.

(At the intersection of both points – the rapid evolution and the desire to top YouTube – Spotify doesn’t seem all that particular about what artists upload. Each video should be in the MP4 or MOV format, span less than 20 minutes, feature a full song, and include “both moving images and audio,” the DSP indicated.)

As the service is apt to emphasize, once again in theory, artists themselves can therefore capitalize on a fresh revenue source, engage their most dedicated supporters, and drive audio streams to their catalogs. Not as widely discussed is the idea that a collection of high-quality videos may be useful in terms of separating proper music from AI slop.

Although the “Verified by Spotify” badge rollout was a step in the right direction, users cannot currently filter artist profiles accordingly. Proposed song-specific AI tags are presumably a ways out as well.

But studio sessions, live performances, and to some extent music videos are immune to rapid-fire machine-output uploads. In this way, the above-noted video playlists and especially personalized recommendations might effectively double as AI-proof listening options.