Spotify Canvas | New Feature
Great news! If you use Identity Music to distribute your music, we have a great new feature you can use! It’s called “Spotify Canvas” and it’s way cool! Starting last Thursday, Identity Music secured an exciting new agreement with Spotify. This enabled us to provide all of our artists with access to this brilliant new branding tool.
What is Spotify Canvas?
“Canvas” is a feature on Spotify where you can play a short lapping video alongside your track. Whilst your track plays, a video between 3 and 8 seconds will play on a continuous loop. This video plays until the track’s end, adding another element of character and story to your music.
How will Spotify Canvas help me?
According to Spotify the canvas feature can provide widespread benefits to artists. When Spotify ran beta testing of the feature, the results were:
- Track Shares increased by an average of 145%
- Playlist Adds increased by an average of 20%
- Streams increased by an average of 5%
- Profile Visits increased by an average of 9%
- Track Saves increased by an average of 1.4%
We recently wrote an article on just how powerful music video content has become Music Video Marketing | Identity Music. Clearly Spotify is keeping up with the latest trends across the board and bringing video engagement to the forefront of streaming.
Adding a Spotify Canvas to your release will really up your game. It will convey your story and show just how serious you are. Those numbers boosts will definitely be a bonus too!
How do I upload a Spotify Canvas?
As an Identity Music client, you will have free access to this great feature. Head over to your Spotify for Artists account and follow the process below:
- Select the track you want to upload a canvas to and click the “+” icon.
- Choose a video and upload it
- Trim your video to between 3 and 8 seconds.
- Review you canvas to make sure you are happy with it.
- Verify that you have the rights to post this video content and share it everywhere!
Ensure that your video meets the below Spotify Canvas specifications before you publish:
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical)
- Resolution: At least 720px tall
- File Format: MP4 or JPEG.
- Durations: Between 3 and 8 seconds.
Can I use Spotify Canvas?
This feature is available in most territories; however, it is not available to the following locations yet:
Algeria; Bahrain; Belarus; Egypt; India; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kuwait; Lebanon; Moldova; Morocco; Oman; Palestine; Qatar; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Tunisia; Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.
As an Identity Music client, you should be able to access the canvas option in your Spotify For Artists account assuming you are not based in one of these locations. If you can’t see it yet, sit tight. As this is a new feature it may take Spotify a few days to get it rolled out to everyone.
Can I see how popular my Spotify Canvas is?
Yes you can! You can see how many people have viewed your video within the Spotify for Artists account. You will find these helpful stats in the Music tab. This will help you to see if your canvases are working or whether you need to change them up a bit!
Helpful Tips for creating an engaging Canvas:
Spotify has given these ten helpful suggestions to help you create a canvas that they believe will be a hit!
- Avoid footage with talking, rapping, or singing.
Since the footage is looped any mouth movements will be distracting and even off-putting for some watchers. - No frenetic cuts or flashing effects.
This will not make your content engaging in any way. - Keep the action centred.
Player controls may appear over the lower half of the screen, so the most important stuff should be in the centre or slightly higher. - Spotify Canvas is a vertical video format.
Ensure that your video is intended to be vertical. - No artist, track, or album names.
This can already be seen in your song data. - Tell a story.
Take inspiration from the success of TikTok and deliver a hit video in seconds. - Tell a bigger story.
Get your canvases to tie in with previous songs or all the over songs on the album to tell a connecting story. - Amplify your brand consistency.
Keep it consistent with your other platforms! - Switch your Canvases whenever.
If you need to switch it up to keep it dynamic, do it! Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day are all great excuses to put an alternative out there. - Experiment with different kinds of loops.
Spotify defines them as: “The Continuous Loop” – has the satisfying feel of a seamless looping GIF with no clear beginning or end. “The Hard Cut loop” – has clear edit points that can be artfully disguised. “The Rebound” – plays your clip forward and then reverses it.
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