Spotify Says Music Videos Will Roll Out to U.S. & Canadian Subscribers This Month

Music videos will be available for all Spotify premium users in the U.S. and Canada by the end of the month, the company announced Tuesday (Dec. 9).

According to a new post on Spotify’s “For the Record” blog, the “limited” catalog of music videos will include clips from artists such as Ariana Grande, Olivia Dean, BABYMONSTER, Addison Rae, Tyler Childers, Natanael Cano and Carin León, “from studio versions to live performances and covers.” It added that availability will increase “over the coming months.”

The music video feature was beta-tested in nearly 100 markets last year.

Tuesday’s blog post was published less than a month after Spotify announced that it and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) had signed a licensing deal for “expanded audiovisual rights” in the U.S. to increase royalty-earning potential of publishers and songwriters who opted in. That news broke amid an ongoing standoff between the streaming giant and the NMPA over the former’s bundling of audiobooks into its premium subscription plans, which Spotify says qualifies it to pay a discounted royalty rate for U.S. mechanical royalties on its premium tiers.

The Spotify blog post cited a Burson survey conducted earlier this year with 8,400 Spotify users across 19 markets in which 70% of respondents said “more video content would enhance their experience” on the platform.

To watch music videos on Spotify, premium subscribers can open the app on their TV, desktop computer, iPhone or Android device and tap “Switch to video” while listening to a track. They can switch back to audio-only by pressing “Switch to audio.” Additional videos can be found by scrolling down to a section titled “Related Music Videos,” or by looking under the “Music” tabs on artists’ profiles. Video playlists including 90s Video Hits, Hip-Hop Throwbacks and Latin PartyVibes are also available to stream.

“We’ve seen that when fans discover a track with a music video on Spotify, they’re 34% more likely to stream it again and 24% more likely to save or share it in the following week,” Spotify’s blog post states. “This is especially true for superlisteners, who go on to actively stream the artist 85% more in the next month, on average.”