Spotify adds video-like feature further heating up competition with TikTok

Spotify has introduced new features to support the growth of singers and songwriters with a larger focus on video formats. These new features include ‘Spotify clips’ and ‘Countdown pages’.

The former allows artists to add 30-second videos to their artist profiles and album pages, and the latter provides a dedicated space on the artist’s profile to dock pre-save links, post exclusive videos, market their merchandise amongst others.

All of these features were revealed at Stream On. “As we look to the future, we are excited to expand that ambition to even more creators across new formats. We’re enabling more creativity, discovery, and personalisation than ever before by providing the best resources, support, and interactivity,”  Spotify Founder and CEO Daniel Ek said.  Spotify is also now partnering with Patreon, which will enable creators to expand their creative business through direct payments from fans, and allow fans to listen to their Patreon content on Spotify.

Meanwhile in 2022, TikTok’s parent ByteDance also made headway with music labels about expanding its music-streaming service globally bringing the heat against streaming giant Spotify. The company is planning to bring its music streaming service "Resso" into several countries, but the US wouldn’t be included in its initial phase of expansion. 

The Wall Street Journal report added that ByteDance wants to gradually include the service to be integrated within TikTok, a popular short-form social video hosting service, while serving as a platform for distributing its music-streaming service worldwide.  According to The Washington Post, TikTok grew past a billion users pretty quickly and more than 100 million of them are based in the US.  The average user in the US is on the app for 80 minutes daily, which is more than the combined time spent on both Facebook and Instagram.  

TikTok has also always had music in its DNA. In 2017, less than a year after starting out, ByteDance, its parent company merged with a US-based start-up called Musical.ly. Musical.ly was a social media video platform that allowed users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos, and was initially released in August 2014. In November 2017, ByteDance bought Musical.ly in a deal worth US$800 million to US$1 billion. 

While ByteDance as a company has been incredibly successful with its TikTok offering in the social sphere, to date Spotify still holds the number one spot in the world of music - and it has kept this premium position despite stiff competition from the likes of Apple and even YouTube. The company runs on a freemium business model allowing consumers to opt for its ad free subscription service of free ad supported tier.

According to Spotify Audience Network (SPAN), Spotify’s audio-first marketplace that connects podcast publishers and independent creators with advertisers, there was a growth of 50% since 2021, and advertiser participation has since increased by 500%.  Spotify added that the number of independent and enterprise podcasters taking part in SPAN has grown eightfold in the last two years, with NPR being the latest publisher to join the network.

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