- Spotify is rolling out video controls to users globally
- It will roll out to Family Plan managers first before expanding to other tiers this month
- It allows users to maintain an audio-first experience, and users are already enjoying it
Do Spotify’s visual elements get in the way of your music listening experience? Thankfully, the company is launching new video controls, and users already like what they see.
The music streaming giant announced on its newsroom yesterday (April 9) that it’s started its global video controls rollout, allowing you to tailor your in-app experience so that it remains an audio-first one. Spotify’s video controls will first become available to Family Plan managers who can now enable and disable video content for all members. Previously, account managers could only do this for Family Plan-managed accounts for users under 13 years old.
Spotify also revealed that Premium and Basic subscribers across Individual, Duo, Family, or Student plans, as well as free users, will have control over what video content appears in their Spotify account, which will be rolling out globally this month. I’m signed up to the Premium Individual plan, and the video controls aren’t there for me yet, so there’s still some time before the wider rollout. That said, if you’re on the Family Plan and want to amend your video settings, it’s very easy to do.
Just head to Settings in the Spotify app on mobile, desktop, web, or TV and find ‘Content and display’. From there, you’ll see toggles allowing you to turn off video components, including music videos and Canvas. There’s also an ‘All other videos’ option, which includes video podcasts, vertically scrolling videos, and videos from creators and authors.
Spotify’s visual elements can be quite tedious, especially if you want to switch from audio streaming to music video viewing, then the transitions between the two can be quite janky — at least that’s how I find it. So having the freedom to disable certain types of video content is something I’m going to welcome with open arms, and I’m not the only music fanatic who thinks this.
Putting audio-first experience at the forefront
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Spotify’s music video ecosystem is nothing compared to what YouTube has to offer, which runs smoother, playlist Mixes are better, and when you stream with a YouTube Premium subscription, it’s like MTV never left. Besides, YouTube is my go-to platform for music video content simply because it’s been part of my life much longer than Spotify has.
Although the new Spotify video controls are available to Family Plan managers for the time being, this upgrade has caught the attention of other Premium subscribers for all the right reasons, who have shared their excitement for the wider rollout on Reddit: "This is great," one user shared.
In the same comment, the user also draws on something I never thought of until now. When it comes to music video viewing in the Spotify app, you have to tap the 'Switch to video' button each time a new song plays because it reverts to audio. At the moment, there's no option to enable autoplay for music videos, which, in retrospect, would be a valuable addition to Spotify's video controls.
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