Spotify Planning to Test Full-Length Music Videos in App

Spotify Technology is considering adding full-length music videos to its app, which could help the streaming service better compete with Alphabet's YouTube and ByteDance's TikTok.

The service has already begun talking to partners about the product, according to people familiar with the plan who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak about it publicly. 

Spotify declined to comment. 

The feature would add to Spotify's growing efforts to establish video — which in the streaming media era has tended to be more lucrative than audio — as a core part of its app. Spotify already allows musicians to upload “canvases,” or looping GIFs under 10 seconds long, that populate the screen while music plays. Earlier this year, it debuted a feature called “clips,” which are videos shorter than 30 seconds designed to give artists a storytelling tool to communicate about their music, similar to how they might use TikTok.

The company also launched a new, TikTok-esque music home screen in March that allows users to preview and swipe through surfacing videos before committing to listen to a full track. Earlier this week, Spotify announced that the platform has surpassed more than 100,000 podcasts with video.

Spotify is responding to growing competition for the Gen Z audience by YouTube and TikTok. YouTube operates a streaming music service and appeals to fans with full-length music videos, as well as the more concise Shorts. It has also added podcasts to YouTube Music. ByteDance has reportedly looked to expand its music streaming service Resso, which already operates in countries where Spotify is offered, and TikTok has become an important discovery platform for musical artists. 

Spotify previously set its sights on video by creating its own original series and working with media companies, including Paramount Global and Vice Media, to place TV content in the app, such as clips from the Comedy Central show Broad City. Those deals eventually lapsed.

© 2023 Bloomberg LP

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