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Spotify pushes deeper into music videos with new chart and artist pitching, stepping up its challenge to YouTube
Spotify has launched its first chart dedicated to music videos and, for the first time, is letting artists pitch their videos directly to its editorial team for playlist placement, as the streaming giant deepens its push into video in a bid to compete with YouTube. The moves build on a video expansion that now includes nearly 100,000 artists able to upload full-length videos themselves through a beta scheme, with Spotify citing internal data showing that watching a video significantly boosts subsequent listening of an artist's music.
The new Music Video Charts Global, launched on Tuesday 21 July, ranks the top 50 videos worldwide by daily streams, with the top 10 highlighted weekly across Spotify's social channels. Artists can now pitch unreleased videos, or those released within the past week, for consideration on playlists such as Best New Videos and Today's Top Videos, using the same process as Spotify's existing song-pitching tool. Spotify says viewers of full videos stream that song 64% more over the following three weeks, are 1.4 times more likely to save or share it, and go on to stream 57% more of the artist's wider catalogue; the effect is even stronger among "super listeners". The video push follows Spotify's full-length video beta since March 2024, self-upload rights granted to artists in June 2026, and parallel investment in video podcasts, including a Netflix content deal agreed in October.
In short
- Spotify launches its first global music video chart, ranking the top 50 daily
- Artists can now pitch videos directly for playlist consideration
- Spotify says video viewing sharply boosts subsequent music streaming figures
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Spotify's video expansion is sound strategy backed by data showing videos significantly boost subsequent music consumption. By offering artists direct pitching and leveraging its 600 million-strong user base, Spotify creates an additional discovery pathway within listeners' primary destination, potentially benefiting creators seeking broader reach and introducing platform diversity in music video distribution.
The case against
Rather than competing where YouTube already holds entrenched advantages in scale and infrastructure, Spotify's resources might better serve artists through improved audio quality, fairer compensation, or enhanced music discovery tools. Fragmenting content across platforms risks diluting artist audiences and reducing effectiveness, whilst Spotify is unlikely to match YouTube's video recommendation sophistication despite substantial investment.
Explained simply
Spotify is a music streaming service where listeners hear songs on demand, rather than buying individual tracks. YouTube is another major platform where people watch music videos, and it has long been the dominant place for music videos online. Spotify wants to become more competitive in the video space, both to keep its own users engaged and to challenge YouTube's dominance.
Over the past couple of years, Spotify has gradually introduced video features to its platform. It started with a small number of artists and has expanded to allow nearly 100,000 of them to upload videos directly. The company has now created dedicated charts for music videos and tools that let artists pitch their videos to Spotify's editorial team for inclusion on playlists.
Spotify believes there is a strong business case for promoting music videos. Internal data suggests that when people watch videos on Spotify, they listen to more music from those artists afterwards and explore their catalogues more widely. This connection between video viewing and increased listening explains why Spotify is investing in video alongside its core music streaming business.
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