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What is Spotify Canvas?

November 29, 2024
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4 min

Danielle Overdevest

Spotify Canvas – What Is It And How Does it Help Artists?

A Spotify Canvas is a short, maximum 8-second video loop that lives within your songs on Spotify. It will appear in the now-playing section in place of the album cover and act as an alternative content element specific to the song the user is playing. 

Spotify first created the canvas feature in 2019, and it is now a game-changer in promoting music and increasing listener engagement on Spotify. This blog will discuss what Spotify Canvas is, how to promote your music, and, most importantly, how to create an optimized canvas for Spotify. 

What Is Spotify Canvas?

A  Spotify Canvas is a short looping video that you can upload to Spotify to accompany and enrich your song. Spotify Canvas videos are vertical in format as they appear when a user is listening to your song in the now playing section, it is added in place of your album artwork. 

Introduced in 2019, Canvas on Spotify became a way for artists to enrich their fans' experience and deepen their music's storytelling. It's a standard tool artists expect to have in their arsenal when releasing new music. 

Why Use Spotify Canvas?  

Ultimately, creating a better experience for your fans is paramount. However, optimizing and maximizing your Spotify Canvas content has additional benefits. 

According to Spotify, creating high-quality canvases " increases streams by up to 120% and saves by up to 114%, in addition to lifts in artist profile visits and shares." Needless to say, having a canvas on Spotify plays a major role in promoting your music and ensuring that as many potential fans as possible are able to find your music and become engaged with your artistry. 

How can I make a Spotify Canvas?

Clearly, there are major benefits to using Spotify Canvas, but the next step is how can you action these insights? Creating a Spotify Canvas may, at first, seem like a daunting task, especially if you look at the canvas of major artists like Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, or Harry Styles—all of whom have large-scale production capabilities to create canvas effortlessly. But there is a way to easily and effectively create a canvas for Spotify without requiring costly video production. 

The best way is to leverage a Spotify Canvas generator; these tools are designed so artists can quickly create high-quality canvases without hassle. One such tool is Musixmatch Pro. Suppose you've already added your lyrics to Spotify. In that case, you've already joined Musixmatch, which means you can easily create unlimited, free Spotify Canvas with your synchronized lyrics. Suppose you aren't part of Musixmatch Pro. In that case, you can quickly join and distribute your lyrics to Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, and many more platforms.

How To Use Spotify Canvas

Spotify Canvas is an incredible opportunity for you to enrich your music; you can expand and visually enhance the audience's experience of your songs. The best part is that, while there are some regulations in terms of format and sizing (we'll get into that later) you can experiment with different types of canvases. You can use your footage or leverage content that meets the mood and aesthetics of your song. You can also highlight key lyrics in the clip to focus the audience's experience on the most impactful lyrics of your song.

How can I use Canvas as part of my social media?

Canvas is often the gift that keeps on giving. Because it is similar in size and format to many portrait social media sites like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram Reels, you can repurpose content for Spotify Canvas for these social media platforms and use it as additional promotional material and teasers for your music. 

Best Practices for Spotify Canvas

Let's explore some more technical and essential information to ensure you know how to create optimized Spotify Canvas content. In addition to Spotify's official guidelines, we've rounded up the essential best practices for creating a Spotify Canvas.

Adhere to Spotify Canvas Dimensions

Spotify has specific regulations for Canvases, following these is paramount as it ensures your Canvas is optimized for Spotify.

A Canvas must be:

  • 3-8 seconds long
  • Be in a vertical 9:16 ratio
  • Be between 720px - 1080px tall  
  • Uploaded as an MP4 or JPG file

Be Consistent in Your Artist and Album Brand

Spotify Canvas is an excellent opportunity to express your identity and brand as an artist; it's an easy way to enrich your song's storytelling, create deeper engagement, and therefore, more streams with your songs.  You can make a custom Spotify Canvas for each song and are not limited to picking one canvas and keeping it. You can switch up your canvas as you want and continue to enrich your fans' experience. 

Make 8 Seconds Feel Like Forever with Video Loops

The best videos feel like they have no end. An excellent tactic for post-engagement is to create seamless video loops, where the end, beginning, and middle are seamlessly integrated so the video feels like it's ongoing. 

Musixmatch Pro Spotify Canvas Maker 

We've established significant benefits to making a Spotify Canvas; now the question is how to make them while adhering to the best practices to ensure that the Canvas is optimized for Spotify, fans, and streaming. The best way is to leverage the power of a Spotify Canvas Maker. You can use the Musixmatch Pro Spotify Canvas Generator for free when you join! Create unlimited Spotify Canvas for every song,  leverage our templates, or use the tool to build and customize your canvas with your assets.

Are you ready to create a Spotify Canvas? Get Started on Musixmatch Pro.

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