Back in 2024, Spotify stepped into YouTube Music’s shoes by launching in-app music videos to limited regions, leaving the US and Canada out of the equation, but that’s now changed.
Starting today, music videos will finally be available in beta to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada after almost two years, giving users the option to switch between audio and visual streaming. The update lands very shortly after the huge success of Spotify Wrapped 2025.
In Spotify’s blog announcement, the company shared its excitement for the North American rollout of music videos, detailing the impact of visual accompaniments to music listening:
“For decades, music videos have done more than just accompany a song; they’ve shaped style, started conversations, and helped build fandom. This expansion gives millions more listeners access to a catalog of official music videos, and also introduces new video formats like live performances and covers”.
However, it’s not just the regions above that will get access to in-app music videos. Along with the US and Canada, music videos will also expand to Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Uganda, and Venezuela as of December 9. Even better news, these videos are easy to enable across devices.
Once you start playing a song in Spotify on mobile, desktop, or TV, you’ll have the option to tap the ‘Switch to video’ button, and the music video will begin where the song left off.
There’s no ignoring that the expansion of music video access is another one of Spotify’s moves to broaden its services, but music videos on Spotify have really split subscribers down the middle.
Spotify wants to be YouTube
Spotify is one of the best music streaming services for a plethora of reasons, but music videos isn’t one that a lot of subscribers rave about, and these concerns have been around since day one.
When Spotify first introduced music videos to the user experience, it invited a lot of comments about the risks of not living up to certain expectations, with subscribers begging, ‘don’t ruin it like Instagram’ on the official Spotify Community forum. The other main concern, and one that resonates the most with me, is other services offering a better music video ecosystem.
For many music lovers, including myself, Spotify isn’t the first thing I think about when I hear ‘music videos’ because, let’s be real, YouTube has been dominating the music video field for the last 20 years, offering a smoother viewing experience. More often than not, Spotify’s music videos feel more cluttered than helpful.
Despite these concerns, there are plenty of users out there who have welcomed the integration of music videos simply because they like having the option to switch between audio and visual streaming. But whether you want them or not, Spotify is doubling down on its commitment to bring videos to its subscribers, and I feel this isn’t the end just yet.
What are your thoughts on music videos on Spotify?
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
