“Building connections between artists and fans” has become such a worn-in music biz catchphrase that I feel compelled to acknowledge when something actually pulls it off. Last week, as I was writing about the challenges facing music streamers have faced with video on their platforms, I finally spent some time with Spotify’s latest music video player, which launched quietly in December. 

One of the harder lessons that Spotify learned from their early video experiments (circa 2015-16) was that music listeners do not want video that interrupts their listening. It sounds kind of obvious in hindsight, but to figure that out, Spotify had to hire a bunch of people to make beautiful-looking interview videos that they would insert between songs in marquis playlists such as Rap Caviar. As it turns out, people didn’t want to pause between “Trap Queen” and “Alright” for a Q&A with Rich Homie Quan. Many videos got very few views, and some talented people lost their jobs.  

The new video player has taken those lessons to heart. It’s more or less the same experience as their podcast video player, which has been around for a few years, and allows you to toggle back and forth between audio-only and video without stopping playback. With music, that means that you can be out and about listening to a song, notice it has a music video when you get a seat on the train, and start playing the video mid-song without starting over. It might not sound impressive on paper, but I have been watching a heck of a lot more videos, like this one. Nice job people!