Spotify is the latest platform to test TikTok style short-form vertical video feature, which allows users to scroll through artist’s visuals.
TikTok‘s influence seems to reach far and wide, with many of the big social media platforms straight-up copying the short-form vertical video feature’s – Instagram came through with Reels, Youtube has Shorts, Snapchat with Spotlight, Pinterest with Idea Pins, and we also have Byte and Triller. Spotify will be testing a new feature that will follow suit.
The latest to jump on the train, Spotify has confirmed it will be testing a new feature in it’s IOS Discover app which will allow users to vertically swipe through the interface, navigating between music clips.
The guy who is credited as the inventor of the Hashtag, Chris Messina, posted to Twitter after discovering the new feature in TestFlight – where tech brand’s test beta versions of apps.
Messina told TechCrunch, who originally reported on the story, that the new feature will involve an icon in the navigation toolbar, living between the home and search icons, which will take you straight to the video feed when tapped.
From there it’s basically just TikTok – you swipe up, you might even swipe down, to navigate through the feed. You can like songs by tapping the heart. Messina also suggested you will be able to tap the three-dot menu to view a standard song information sheet.
Not only that, @Spotify Discover is basically a pared down version of a TikTok-style feed of vertical music videos (likely using their canvas format) that you can like or skip.#NewSpotify pic.twitter.com/hpOEZ8v9bl
— Messina.eth (@chrismessina) November 24, 2021
So what will the clips be of? Well, Spotify hasn’t confirmed this yet, but from the video shared by Messina, it looks like the clips might be the artist’s existing Canvas videos.
Spotify introduced Canvas in 2019 – it’s the feature that shows the little videos artists attach to their songs on the Spotify app, a virtual, dynamic album cover if you will, and it seems to be significantly driving engagement metrics for the app.
According to Spotify, when users see a Canvas they’re 5% more likely to keep streaming, 145% (woah) more likely to share the track, 20% more likely to add it to a playlist, and 9% more likely to visit the artist’s profile page. People like visuals – the numbers don’t lie.
Spotify hasn’t given us too much information as of yet regarding the new feature – when questioned by TechCrunch about release plans, the app spokesperson was coy, simply suggesting that sometime’s these tests are rolled out, sometimes they’re not:
“Some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don’t have any further news to share at this time.”
Since TikTok has apparently forced its format into every other app, it feels like the logical next step for Spotify as well. It is certainly an interesting gaze into the trajectory of music consumption and the current trends of audience engagement with media as a whole.
