Nela Records

How to Use Spotify Canvas to Create Fan Engagement

If you want to grow your music fan engagement (and…who doesn’t?), adding Spotify Canvas to your tracks can help improve your Spotify performance. That means you should get more followers, more streams, and more engagement than ever before. Sound good?

What is Spotify

As a musician, you are probably already familiar with Spotify – a digital music, video streaming, podcast service that provides access to literally millions of songs from artists all around the globe. While most functions on Spotify are free, you can upgrade to Spotify Premium.

Spotify boasts over 365 million active monthly users. More than 165 million of the users have a paid Spotify Premium membership. Spotify owns 36% of the world’s streaming market. Around 44% of listeners use the app every day. Clearly, Spotify is a huge music market for both up and coming and established musicians.

What is Spotify Canvas?

Spotify Canvas is a three to eight second visual loop that comes on the Now Playing view on the Spotify platform. It is an alternative to album artwork that fills the screen in a vertical format creating an amazing outlet for each artist to present their own unique visuals.

Using Canvas to Grow Your Spotify Fan Following

Having fans on Spotify is priceless and when you add in Canvas, the benefits are greatly multiplied. You’ll be able to not only attract fans, but to engage them as well. Musicians are 145% more likely to get track shares by using Canvas and you stand a 20% greater likelihood of getting added to playlists. Canvas also sports a 5% higher possibility of listeners streaming your music.

How to Get Started Uploading Loops into Canvas

Spotify makes uploading Canvases a breeze from a computer or mobile device. From your user account, navigate the song of your choice and click “change Canvas”. Then, click on the plus sign. Select the file on your computer or phone that you wish to upload. Click “next” and then agree and post. You will be able to edit your clip in the app. and  

Creating a Spotify Canvas

Most Spotify users agree – every song should have a Spotify Canvas loop. Imagine a listener enjoying a song with Canvas and yours comes on and…nothing. Your music stands a good chance of getting traded off for another song featuring Canvas.

As a musician, you want to give your fans all you’ve got – in your music and in visuals as well. Your fans will feel cheated if you don’t and you will doubtfully collect any new followers without some perks since “everyone else is doing it”.

It all boils down to the fact that it’s time to make a Canvas. While it may be intimidating at first, once you get the hang of it, it’s fun and when you get a feel for what it does for your music career, you’ll be further pumped to get your tunes on Canvas.

Before you begin, knowing the Spotify Canvas specs is important so you can adhere to the requirements. You must follow through with all the rules and regulations or you won’t be allowed to present your video.

o Length: three to eight seconds

o Dimensions: 9:16 ratio (vertical)

o File format: MP4 or JPG

o Pixel size: at least 720px

Creating a Spotify Canvas is easy when you follow these simple suggestions:

1. Have a clear-cut plan mapped out before you start.

2. Make your Canvas consistent with your brand identity.

3. Create your production to be relevant to the music.

4. Watch other Canvases to see what the competition is doing with theirs.

5. Tell your full story in three to eight minutes, no longer.

6. Grab your audiences’ attention in the first few seconds.

7. Use footage with striking, vivid colors like red, green, blue, yellow, pink, and purple.

8. Be sure your visuals come out crystal clear. Some don’t.

9. Consider extreme closer-up shots to draw interest.

10. Don’t be afraid to shock your audience. Shock and awe!

11. Consider hiring am actor or actress for your Canvas productions.

12. Always deliver quality in sound and in your visuals.

13. Avoid content that is deceptive, dangerous, illegal, sensitive, or promotional.

14. Don’t use footage that has singing, rapping, or talking in it.

15. Don’t include your song title or artist name since it will already be shown.

16. Avoid flashing video content or you’ll risk overwhelming your audience.

17. Set your video to allow for edges being cropped on some phones.

Canvas is a very useful tool, and your creation is worth giving careful thought to. Read up on video making so you can enhance your footage with ideas from experts in the field.

Loop Options

Loops are the way in which a video runs. Spotify Canvas’ three loop options include:

Hard Cut: Edit points are clear cut although you can get create with them.

Rebound: Your clip plays forward and then plays backward.

Continuous Loop: The seamless loop continues to play without interruption.

What Makes Spotify Canvas Different?

Spotify Canvas is an innovative and effective tool for music marketing. What makes it different though? While most marketing is geared towards selling a product or service or even your music itself, Spotify Canvas caters to entertaining your viewers. It is marketing because it promotes your music and increases your followers, but all the while you are offering something in return – a video for the enjoyment of your audience. Well played, Spotify!

Let’s face it. Not every musician is a videographer. Not every musician has the time to become one and even those who are gifted in videography rarely have the time to spend making Canvases. You certainly don’t want to miss out on the opportunities that await Canvas users, so you might consider hiring a music marketing agency that includes Spotify Canvas in their services. Regardless of if you do Spotify Canvas yourself or outsource the work, the investment will no doubt result in a nice return.