Spotify is now showing music videos to premium subscribers

Spotify, the popular audio streaming service, officially introduces support for music videos onto its platform. Although currently in beta, the music video feature on Spotify is available to Premium users across 11 markets. According to Spotify, the video feature is an effort to improve artist-to-fan connections, allowing users to discover and engage with music more effectively, making it a natural fit for Spotify.

Similar to YouTube Music, Spotify's video feature enables users to seamlessly switch between listening to a song and watching its music video. In the beta version, there is a "Switch to Video" button on the Now Playing screen for compatible tracks. Tapping the button restarts the selected song and plays the official music video. Users can easily switch back to audio or go full-screen on mobile devices by rotating their phone or on TV. Additionally, if a user watches the entire music video, Spotify automatically transitions to playing the next queued song in audio format.

On desktop platforms, users can play the music videos by clicking on the "Switch to Video" button shown in the right-hand column alongside details about the current song and artist. Spotify confirms that this feature is also accessible on television platforms, where it proves particularly convenient. Notably, the company has developed applications for various TV platforms, including Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, gaming consoles, and numerous smart TV models.

For users wishing to return to background listening, they can simply tap the "Switch to Audio" button to deactivate the music video.

Meanwhile, it is important to note that the feature is only available in beta for Premium subscribers in 11 specific countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Sweden, and the U.K. Additionally only a limited selection of music videos will be accessible on Spotify. The catalogue includes hits from global artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, Ice Spice, Aluna, and Asake. According to Sten Garmark, Spotify's global head of consumer experience, the platform's full music video collection will eventually encompass thousands of songs. However, the company has secured distribution rights to incorporate additional videos in the future.

"In our initial beta rollout, we're starting with a limited subset of the full catalogue, which includes thousands of music videos. Within this subset, we aimed to prioritise a wide range of genres and artists across our launch markets," Spotify's VP Global Head of Consumer Experience, Sten Garmark, said to TechCrunch.

Spotify elaborates that its new feature does not involve importing videos from external sources like YouTube or third-party applications. Instead, the company directly hosts these videos and delivers them to users without interruptions from advertisements. Regarding inquiries about royalties for video playback versus audio streaming, Spotify did not provide a response.