Spotify Confirms It’s Testing TikTok-Style Stream With Music Videos

Image Credit: Chris Messina

The mobile app’s new Spotify vertical stream uses Canvas videos to help listeners discover new music through short previews.

TikTok’s abbreviated vertical video feed has been copied by Instagram with Reels, YouTube with Shorts, and many other platforms. The next step might be Spotify. The new feature was first spotted by Chris Messina, a Spotify beta tester for iOS.

The new Discover tab is in the navigation bar at the bottom, between Home and Search. By pressing the icon, you directly access the feed. As the video above shows, Discover is a vertical stream of music videos, which just like TikTok can be liked or scrolled to ignore. Messina told TechCrunch that by pressing the three dots to the right of the heart icon, the entire song is displayed. It looks like the videos are based on Spotify Canvas.

Canvas was first introduced by Spotify in 2019. The feature replaces the static album art with a 3-8 second video loop on the Now Playing screen of the mobile app. Spotify says Canvas is increasing streams, shares, playlist additions, saves, and profile visits among music with looping videos. With the stream only showing tracks with Canvas, it’s now more important than ever to upload a video to accompany your track, as not only could it increase key metrics for those listening, but it could also show your music to your audience. a whole new audience.

TechCrunch reached out to Spotify for more information on the feature, asking if they plan to roll it out further, if it will be available for iOS and Android, what markets they are planning, etc. Spotify declined to share details on the new feature, but confirmed via a statement that they are exploring the idea of ​​a vertical video stream.

At Spotify, we regularly run a number of tests to improve our user experience. Some of these tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience, and others are only for important learning. We have no further news to share at this time.

Spotify spokesperson at TechCrunch

As TikTok offers video discovery, Spotify Discover could be a great way for listeners to find new music and for artists to grow their audiences. The functionality is still under testing and there is no guarantee that it will end up in the final update of the app. This isn’t the first social media-influenced feature we’ve seen from Spotify. Last year, Spotify tested adding stories to playlists. Spotify Stories has never been extended to all users.

Download your own music for free from Spotify and learn how to add a canvas here.