Spotify, okay to say, you have made unusual choices in the user experience.
There are a number of panels in the app, and the layout is confusing. The Service always tracks your activity. The app also seems strangely hostile to playing original albums. All of this serves to create a general feeling that Spotify’s designers are trying to pressure you into using the service in a certain way.
It is understandable then that some people are offended by the way music videos are posted on the platform. For the most part, they started playing automatically, in the background, whenever the artist uploaded a video for the song. Some music videos have a very different sound from the original tracks, especially if they include graphics or sound effects, which can be distracting if you choose the album version of the song. And even if you enjoy music videos (which I do), the decision to have videos play automatically—using bandwidth and battery power—has upset a lot of people.
There are other factors. In the Spotify desktop app, videos are invisible; they’re always contained in a small album art panel until you can find a hidden, very small Now Playing button that expands it. Also, the selection of videos on the platform, as well as those that are mysteriously absent, seem completely random. Because of this, I check YouTube first when I really want to watch a music video.
The most annoying thing, however, was the lack of any obvious way to disable all videos. That changed recently—there are now settings changes to disable music videos on Spotify entirely, as well as controls that disable the Canvas feature (animated album art) and video podcasts.
On mobile you can do this by tapping your user profile icon at the top left to reveal the side panel. Then tap Settings and privacyfollowed by Content and display.
Photo: Justin Pott
Of Videos and canvases you’ll see three toggles: one for music videos, one for Canvas, and one for all other videos. This last switch disables video podcasts, meaning you’ll get an audio-only version of the podcast instead. Turn all of these off, and Spotify will use much less bandwidth.
For the desktop app, it’s a little different. Click on your user profile icon in the upper right corner, then click Settings. Scroll down to Videos and canvases for options to disable music videos and Canvas.
I tested this and it worked. The music video icon on playlists and albums has disappeared, as has the music video collection on Artist pages. The only remaining disabled feature is the switch to video button in the Now Playing sidebar, which appears below the album art. Click it and you’ll be told that the video can’t play unless you turn on videos again in settings. It’s weird, sure, but for the most part turning this off means you don’t have to think about music videos on Spotify anymore.
I sincerely wish Spotify would release music videos more carefully. Sometimes I really want to see a video—not always when I’m playing a song. Music video playlists may be acceptable if they run separately from audio-only playlists. I don’t just want to find a music video when I want an album version of a song, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I can only hope that future Spotify interface choices will keep things clearly separated.
