Spotify with video: Does Spotify make music clips cool again?

Spotify launches videos. Are music clips becoming cool again?

The leading music platform is now also introducing a video mode in Switzerland. A look back at pop history shows whether this is smart.

Published: October 16, 2024, 5:22 p.m

The first music video to reach over a billion views on YouTube: “Gangnam Style” by Psy. With the dance choreo, the South Korean also anticipated the Tiktok era.

Photo: Screenshot YouTube

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BotTalk

Shortly:

Spotify launches music videos in 97 countries.
Only paying subscribers can view the videos in the app.
Music videos have lost meaning on streaming platforms.
The most expensive clips were produced in the 1990s.

Music videos are given a new platform, a very prominent one. After successful tests, Spotify is enabling a video mode in almost 100 countries.

However, you can only see the clips if you have a paid subscription. That’s 246 million people worldwide. The feature will also be delivered in Switzerland with the next update of the Spotify app.

It’s surprising that music videos are getting such a big new showcase. Because the time for loving or incredibly expensive videos is over. Moving images are in demand on smartphones, of course, but the most popular formats serve attention spans of a maximum of one minute. Tiktok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels have introduced the world to short fodder.

The most expensive music video is by Michael and Janet Jackson

Investing thousands or even millions of francs in a music video? It’s no longer worth it today, unless you’re Coldplay and have unlimited funds anyway.

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Filmed songs experienced their first heyday with the rise of music television in the 1980s. MTV and later Viva captivated an entire generation of young people in front of the television sets, where the stars could suddenly be seen very close in the living room. At the same time, videos made their main characters even more remote because they were shown in worlds that mere mortals had never entered.

The music video made the stars even bigger.

The MTV era saw some of the most expensive video productions. In the 1990s and early 2000s, budgets of millions were spent on filming for the top stars. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Britney Spears and the Guns N’ Roses are among the acts that have often spent a lot of money. The most expensive music video is by Michael and Janet Jackson: “Scream” from 1995 is said to have cost $7 million.

The success of YouTube gave the discipline a boost in the 2010s, while digitalization was able to reduce production costs at the same time. This offered new opportunities to make a name for themselves: around 2010, the US band Ok Go managed to build a career on their music videos, each of which was shot in one take. The clips went viral, which subsequently became the ultimate goal and can now be achieved with significantly less effort.

Kanye West showed his artistic megalomania in 2010 with a 34-minute “film version” of the song “Runaway,” and Pharrell followed up in 2013 “Happy” a 24-hour video.

The still image on YouTube is enough

YouTube has made music television obsolete. Whereupon this social media has made the music video obsolete.

Although YouTube remains an important source for music fans, it has increasingly become an audio platform with its own music service. Almost all the songs in the world are accessible there, usually with a still image. This is because artists don’t want to miss out on this huge stage and also have their songs released for YouTube Music when they are published.

Even Taylor Swift and Beyoncé primarily upload lyric videos to YouTube in which the song lyrics can be read over an image that is at most minimally animated. Because you need that to sing along on social media. Meanwhile, the stars themselves have moved even closer to their fans on Instagram and Tiktok. Seeing them on screen is now the norm.

The music video as a promotional tool – because that’s what it’s all about: attention – probably lost its appeal somewhere between 2013 and 2019. The music has become the dance background on Tiktok, with the users directing it. In 2019, Spotify introduced its own short video version, Canvas, where 8-second bites are repeated in a continuous loop.

Rest in peace, music video. Or?

Songs with video are mostly listened to and saved

Nevertheless, Spotify is now relying on the good old format. The timing seems a bit arbitrary. Clips have long been part of the offering at Apple Music and Tidal.

Spotify initially decides which songs can be seen in video mode, in consultation with artists. There is no link to YouTube in the background; the clips are created on the platform itself. So far there are videos from Charli XCXthe pop phenomenon of the year, the neo-punkers Fontaines DC or K-popper Lisa. A new button allows you to switch between audio and video mode.

A simple button allows users to switch between audio and video mode.

Photo: PD

The Swedish company thus evaluated its Premium subscriptions on, which seems only fair considering the rising prices. The press release states that they want to offer music creators new ways to impress fans and create loyalty. Together with Spotify, songs that have a video will be listened to again for the first time and saved. This ultimately brings users back to the platform more often.

Spotify is thus making YouTube direct competition. Is that what it’s all about?

Maybe the music videos will fit into the revival of the 1990s. Will artists and their labels join in on a larger scale again? They have long since shifted time and money to social media. Which in turn makes investing time and money into a music video pretty cool.

Martin Fischer is an editor in the life department. He writes about pop culture and social issues. More info

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topicnews · October 17, 2024

Spotify with video: Does Spotify make music clips cool again?

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