It’s not just TikTok that Spotify is drawing inspiration from with the redesign of its app, the company today also announced new features inspired by YouTube and other social platforms, such as Instagram and Snapchat. A new feature, Spotify Clips, allows artists to add 30-second videos to their artist profiles — basically Spotify’s own Stories feature.
The feature allows fans to “go deeper” into artists’ stories while listening to their music, the company explains.
The videos will be available on both the artist profiles and their album pages.
The company has been testing such an addition for years. In 2019, it attempted to create its own version of Stories with a feature called Storyline – which allows artists to share their own insights, inspiration, details about their creative process, or other meanings behind the music.
In 2020, it was again spotted testing Stories, but this time by allowing influencers to introduce their own playlists as curators of sorts. But until now, Spotify’s official embrace of Stories has been limited to sharing music and the Looping Canvas videos with other social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram.
Spotify suggested the new feature could be used by artists to talk about an unreleased song, promote a new album, or share the stories behind a song, among other things. In addition, they would provide a way for artists to reach both new listeners and loyal fans. Spotify said it’s unlocking the feature for thousands of artists starting this week and continuing to roll it out this spring.
Spotify Clips was one of many new products announced today for artists, but the other major addition was a YouTube-esque feature called Countdown Pages.
Similar to how YouTube lets creators tease a video premiere in advance, Spotify now offers a special space on artist profiles to see a timer counting down to a new release.
The Jonas Brothers announced Countdown Pages at today’s event, saying it would give them a way to maintain their connection with fans.
This feature also gives artists access to Spotify’s home feed, where fans can now do things like pre-save albums, watch exclusive videos, pre-order merchandise and view track lists, the company said.
Countdown pages were tested with a range of artists, including big names like Taylor Swift, Florence and the Machine, and others. Ed Sheeran’s profile now includes a Countdown page.