Spotify has launched a new feature that allows paid premium users to play music videos or video clips from musicians on the platform. The beta program offers thousands of music videos from various genres and artists, prioritizing a variety of content. Users can switch to video while listening to a song, and can easily return to audio if they prefer. The feature is currently available in 11 countries, including Indonesia, Brazil, and the UK, but not yet in the United States. This move is seen as an effort by Spotify to compete with rivals such as YouTube and Apple Music in offering music video content.
Telset.id, Jakarta – Spotify officially launched a new feature that allows users to play music videos or video clips from musicians on the platform.
This music streaming service offers this music video feature through a beta program which can only be accessed by paid premium customers at this time.
Spotify Premium users can access video clips from artists like Ed Sheeran via their mobile, desktop and TV devices, as reported The telephone from Engadget on Thursday (14/03/2024).
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In an email discovered by TechCrunch, Sten Garmark VP and Global Head of Consumer Experience said the company is starting to provide a subset containing thousands of music videos.
“We started with a limited subset of the full catalog, which includes thousands of music videos. Within this subset, we aim to prioritize a variety of genres and artists across our launch markets,” said Garmark.
In fact, Spotify’s true competitors, namely YouTube and Apple Music, already offer music video features, so this feature is an effort by the platform to be able to compete with its competitors.
To watch a music video, Spotify Premium users who are listening to a song can click “switch to video” directly on the screen that is playing the song.
Music videos will always start the song back from the beginning, but users can tap the return to audio button at any time according to their wishes.
Even if a music video is playing in a user’s playlist, Spotify will still play the next song as audio only, if the song doesn’t have a music video.
While the beta option is currently only available in 11 countries, the availability of Spotify’s new feature was selected based on a number of criteria including market size and availability of local content support, according to Garmark.
One of the countries that gets this feature is Indonesia along with Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, Sweden and the UK. Unfortunately, users in the United States cannot yet use this new Spotify feature.
As a reminder, rumors about Spotify possibly adding a new music video feature started last July after a number of layoffs at the company occurred.
This new announcement is the first time Spotify has announced the existence of music videos on its platform. However, a Reddit user three months ago discovered a “switch to video” button on Limp Bizkit’s song My Way.
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Currently, Spotify Premium users in Indonesia can try out this new feature. So, friend, are you interested in trying this new Spotify feature? (FY/IF)
