 The way musicians promote themselves in the last few years has had more simple rules than at any other time in the music business, but that just changed in a big way as Spotify has come for YouTube's domination of music videos and has launched the ability to watch those music videos for premium users in their app. This of course makes the strategy musicians use to promote their music thrown into a wild west where things will be chaotic and so much can change. Luckily for you, I've seen this coming for years and I have thoughts. But as to 1975's Maddie Healy said in one of his rare non-problematic statements, the war's been incited and guess what, you're all invited and I'm gonna break down what this means for musicians. Ah yes, Spotify, you know, the leading audio streaming platform. Decided it's time to go big and go for video? Well, in a play to make musicians even more reliant on the service so they don't revolt over how poorly they're paid, they have to keep launching services that make musicians dependent on them. And while that's another story for another time, I'll be getting into that in a few weeks. But since Spotify today announced the launch of music videos, that means this audio platform now has three types of video. Since we now have Canvas, which you can upload for each song, which are three to eight seconds. And then you have Clips, which are 30 second videos of messages you can have on your album page that are close of TikToks, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. And now music videos, which are videos that accompany your music for those of you who failed kindergarten. Anyway, these music videos are launching in the countries on the screen that you can see right now for premium users by hitting a button that toggles a switch to video. And because it's Spotify, they always only launched the biggest stars first. I mean, they announced Clips like a year ago this week, and that's still in beta with only the biggest stars able to use it. But the good news about that is it gives you all time to plan for your upcoming releases, which we'll discuss in a second. And trust me, Spotify has a history of never even launching products or delaying them, so this could take more than a year to come your way. I mean, they've even dipped their toe into music videos on and off over the years, letting some of the biggest stars put up one-off videos on the platform, and then forgetting about that option altogether for years on end. But I will say, by the language they used here, it does seem like this is coming sooner than later for once, since those other times they made no mention of a beta period, and they really got to come for TikTok and YouTube's dominance at some point. But before we get into what musicians should do to plan for this, let's quickly discuss what Spotify isn't doing here. Notably, this is not Spotify wandering into short form, or you posting 15-minute vlogs, playthroughs, or behind-the-scenes videos quite yet. They also aren't coming for YouTube for pictures of your kid kicking your dog in the balls, or whatever your dorky co-worker Brad says in the group chat. But what it does mean is that music videos will continually be more important on the platform, since whenever platforms announce a change like this, they need it to be a hit, since when that person who decided to do it reports to their boss about the launch, it means they'll have to do something to juice these numbers, and give the people who use it favor so they can show they're worthy of not being fired, and keep their overpaid job that pays much better to them than you. And of course, Spotify is a history of this. Consider when Canvas first launched in 1999. Adding one to a track increased streams by up to 120% and saves by up to 114%. Now it still helps to have one a lot, but not quite that much, since they juice the numbers. But trust me, for the time it takes you to upload a 3-8 second Canvas, it's still worth doing for all your tracks, even if it doesn't have all that extra juice. But inherently, music videos have always helped musicians get more listens to their music and convert fans, despite with those absolute grifter idiots on YouTube and TikTok who love to say hyperbolic things for clicks like, The music video is dead. Well, as you can see yet again, they are idiots whose research assistants write their videos and just say things that get more clicks so they can sell more courses. Since what these fakers don't realize and the reason your favorite artists still put out tons if not even more music videos all while they were saying that is when artists make videos, it tells a story that gets fans more invested in them, and since every study on music shows fans support the artists they feel closer to, well, music videos help you feel closer to artists. The stories you tell in music videos lead to not only more listens, but also more merch sales and more support at concerts. A thing I see constantly when an artist I consult with hasn't lead into music videos quite yet, and then after they do, we see repeated listens per fan go up massively. And while music videos have always been important, these hacks just missed it because they're faking it and mark my words, they'll be making videos saying you need to make music videos now because they thrive on controversy. But let's talk about what you really want to know. How does this affect your release strategy for your music? Which Spotify first launches music videos, it won't affect it at all. In my six to eight week consistent sustained release plan for putting your music video on YouTube will simply shift the posting it to both platforms. But that may change though, which is a good reason why you should be subscribed and have notifications on for this channel. But the reality is I'm going to need to experiment with different strategies after this has been out for a while, since I can't know what to do till we actually see the landscape of how it changes it. But with that said, this will make videos way more important as it's a way to get fans more invested in their relationship with you. And with the rise of short form and chopping up those long form videos into short form is a powerful gateway that gets people into your music and that's going to continue to grow. So music videos are all the more important and with you being able to post about Spotify and put them in the feed they announced last year that's much like the TikTok for you page. All this will keep growing both on here as well as on short form platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Reels. So making a video just continues to have more return on investment and legs for you to grow your fan base with. The fact is Spotify won't be killing YouTube anytime soon. It's always better for you to rely on more than one algorithm and platform to spread your music since as I discussed in my last video on algorithms which shows a link to in the bio or a link at the end of the video. When you have multiple algorithms and platforms working together for you you have more chances of discovery. So making sure to still invest in posting content on YouTube is crucial since all the platforms you are on feed into each other as well as your growth on them. And while you won't need to make a music video for every song on Spotify one of the coolest things I think we will see is Spotify is a platform where we really see songs fans like most blow up. It's so funny how often an artist releases a song and everyone's shocked when track 8 on the record you know the one the team thought was mid because it just didn't hit right all of a sudden becomes a sleeper single. Well now you're gonna be able to see that make a video and up its consumption even more by posting that video to Spotify for fans to go deeper with when they see it's available and as well post it to YouTube and have one of your more loved songs there to take off and get you more fans. Look at modern technology making your life better. But really music videos are important and you should have already been investing in creating them for your music and this is all the more reason why. But if you're thinking you don't even have any music videos well it's gonna be a bit before you need to have them so you can start imagining them and if you don't even know where to start with making videos I highly suggest you hit the description and watch my video on that since I made a bunch of them. But really the good news is one music videos really don't need to be polished and truly any video that shows your personality and plays up your strengths or gives you a war to your fans is better than no video. We also live in an era where an iPhone is used to make amazing movies and music videos every day and with this few simple lights and a few YouTube tutorials you can make videos that really are great and get your music heard by millions of people. I see it all the time. But truly now that Spotify is launching this this is another place where if you make a video the value add will be higher. So Spotify is also doing this to separate the people taking their music seriously to sort through the tens of thousands of songs uploaded to their platform monthly where people are just throwing AI generated garbage at the wall or things they pissed out in 15 minutes from GarageBand. So here's the thing. While you just learned about how this is gonna impact Spotify if you really wanna grow your fan base you need to understand how the Spotify algorithm as well as all the other platforms algorithms work together which is on the video that's on the screen right now. So make sure you watch that next if you really wanna level up. Thanks for watching.