Spotify, it’s fine say, it has made incredible choices for the user experience.
There are a number of panels in the program, and the layout is confusing. That service songs from time to time your activity. The software also seems odd hostile to playing the actual album. All this works to create a general feeling of being of Spotify designers are trying to push you to use the service in a specific way.
So, it’s understandable that some people are upset with the way music videos have been added to the platform. For the most part, they would start playing by default, in the background, whenever an artist uploaded a music video. Some music videos have a very different sound from the original songs, especially with graphics or sound effects, which can be disturbing if you prefer the album version of the song. And even if you enjoy music videos (which I do), the decision to have videos play by default—using bandwidth and battery power—makes a lot of people angry.
There are a few other taboos. On Spotify’s desktop app, videos are barely visible; they sit inside a small panel of album art until you can find a hidden, tiny Play Now button that expands them. Also, the selection of videos that are on the platform, and those that are mysteriously absent, seems completely random. For this reason, I check YouTube first when I want to watch a music video.
Most annoying, however, was the lack of any obvious way to turn off all videos. That soon changed-there is now a toggle in the settings to disable music videos in Spotify completely, as well as controls that disable the Canvas feature (animated album art) and video podcasts.
On mobile you can do this by tapping your profile icon in the top left to bring up a sidebar. Then tap Settings and privacyfollowed by Content and display.
Photo: Justin Pott
In Video and canvas you’ll see three converters: one for music videos, one for Canvas, and one for all other videos. This last toggle disables video podcasts, meaning you’ll get an audio-only version of the podcast instead. Turn all of these off, and Spotify will use significantly less bandwidth.
On the desktop app, it’s a little different. Click your profile icon in the upper right corner, then click Settings. Scroll down to Video and canvas section to find options to disable music videos and canvas.
I tried this and it worked. The music video icon in playlists and albums disappeared, as did the collection of music videos 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 the video can’t play unless you re-enable the video in settings. Odd, sure, but for the most part turning this off means you never have to think about music videos in Spotify again.
I sincerely wish that Spotify would distribute music videos more carefully. Sometimes I really want to see a video—not always when I’m playing a song. Music video playlists would be welcome if they were run separately from audio-only playlists. I don’t just want to find a music video when I search for the album version of a song, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I can only hope that Spotify’s future interface design choices will separate things more clearly.
