Spotify plans to pay creators of popular videos

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Spotify wants to go head-to-head with YouTube. It plans to start paying creators who post popular videos based on the engagement they get from paid subscribers. The streaming service also intends to eliminate automated ad breaks for paid subscribers to encourage them to watch more videos. These changes will take effect starting January 2, 2025, in Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia. This incentive will pit them directly against YouTube, which is also leaning heavily on video podcasts and paying creators in shared ad revenues.

Spotify creators can access their payout details in a hub called Spotify for Creators. The platform can also show if they're eligible for the payments, display more detailed analytics, and offer the option to upload short, vertical videos. It's unclear how much Spotify plans to pay the video content creators on its platform. However, Spotify spokesperson Grey Munford said creators will see their breakdowns in the hub. And Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström told The Verge that the rate will be competitive and consumption-based because "it makes no sense for them" otherwise.

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Instagram now lets you add songs in posts to your Spotify account

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Music discovery is a big part of social media these days. Instagram might be slightly late to the party, but at least, now you can add the songs you hear from posts and Reels straight to your Spotify playlist. If you like a song in a post, tap on the title to go to the audio preview page. You'll know you have the feature if you spot that Add button with the Spotify logo beside the audio scrubber. You will need to link your Spotify account with your Instagram first. But once that is set up, it'll be a one-tap process to add songs to your Liked Songs playlist.

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Spotify Offline Backup lets Premium users listen to songs offline even without downloads

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If you're a Spotify Premium user and forgot to download your favourite playlist or you're looking to save on data or phone storage, Spotify is giving you the option to listen offline sans downloads with the new Offline Backup feature. It takes your recently streamed and queued tracks and compiles these songs into a playlist. It includes tracks stored on your device as part of your regular listening sessions (a.k.a. cache).

Spotify lets you filter and sort songs if you're looking for a "certain vibe." You can arrange it by artist, mood, and genre. Like its other playlists, Offline Backup evolves as you listen, so there's always something new there.

Offline Backup will appear automatically in the Home feed when you're offline. You just need to listen to more than five songs recently and have offline listening enabled. You can find this feature under Settings > Data Saving and Offline > Offline Listening / Offline Access. You can add this playlist to Your Library for easier access.

Offline Backup is rolling out globally, so you should have it once you've updated your app to the latest version. It comes to Android and iOS, including Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

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Spotify HiFi: A long-awaited saga nears its end?

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After over three years of anticipation, Spotify's promised high-quality audio tier, HiFi, is finally taking shape. Initially touted as a standalone premium service, it's now evolving into a deluxe add-on to the existing Premium subscription. This strategic shift comes as Spotify attempts to catch up with competitors like Apple Music and Amazon Music, who have already offered lossless audio as a standard feature.

CEO Daniel Ek confirmed the development during Spotify's earnings call, describing the upcoming tier as "a deluxe version of Spotify that has all of the benefits that the normal Spotify version has, but a lot more control, a lot higher quality across the board." It's expected to cost around US$17-US$18 per month, offering lossless audio, enhanced library management, AI-powered playlists, headphone optimization, and other unspecified features.

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