Spotify introduces Countdown Pages and its own Stories feature

It’s not just TikTok Spotify is taking inspiration from with its app’s redesign, the company also announced today new features inspired by YouTube and other social platforms, like Instagram and Snapchat. One new feature, Spotify Clips, will allow artists to add 30-second videos to their artist profiles — effectively, Spotify’s own Stories feature.

The feature lets fans “go deeper” into artists’ stories while they’re listening to their music, the company explained.

The videos will be available on both the artist profiles and their album pages.

The company has been testing such an addition for years. In 2019, it tried to create its own version of Stories with a feature called Storyline — which would allow artists to share their own insights, inspiration, details about their creative process or other meanings behind the music.

In 2020, it was spotted again testing Stories, but this time by allowing influencers to introduce their own playlists as curators of sorts. But until now, Spotify’s official embrace of Stories has been limited to allowing users to share music and its looping Canvas videos to other social networks, like Facebook and Instagram.

Spotify suggested its new feature could be used by artists to  talk about an unreleased song, to promote a new album or to share the stories behind a song, among other things. Plus, they’d offer a way for artists to reach both new listeners and loyal fans alike. Spotify said it’s unlocking the feature for thousands of artists starting week, then will roll it out further this spring.

Spotify Clips was one of several new products announced today for artists but the other significant addition was a YouTube-like feature called Countdown Pages.

Similar to how YouTube lets creators tease a video premiere in advance, Spotify will now provide a dedicated space on artists’ profiles to watch a timer count down to a new release.

The Jonas Brothers announced Countdown Pages at today’s event, saying it would give them a way to maintain their connection with fans.

This feature also provides artists with access to Spotify’s home feed where fans can now do things like presave albums, see exclusive videos, preorder merch and preview tracklists, the company said.

Countdown pages were tested with a range of artists, including big names like Taylor Swift, Florence and the Machine and others. Ed Sheeran’s profile includes a Countdown page now.