Spotify launches video chart as it courts fans beyond audio
The daily Top 50 ranks Spotify’s most-watched music videos, while artists can now pitch clips to editors and some can upload full-length videos directly.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
4 min read
Spotify has put music videos on the leaderboard.
The company launched its first global chart for music videos on Tuesday, July 21, with a daily Top 50 based on the most-watched videos on the platform. Spotify said the Music Video Charts Global list updates every day at 6 p.m. ET and can be found in its Charts and Music Video Playlists hubs.
Spotify also said it will post the week’s top 10 videos on its social channels each Tuesday. The first No. 1 went to Shakira and Burna Boy’s “Dai Dai,” the official song of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which Spotify said has passed 130 million total streams on the service.
Artists get a new route to fans
The rollout gives artists more ways to get seen inside Spotify. For the first time, artists can pitch new music videos directly to Spotify’s editorial team, with possible placement on playlists such as Best New Videos, Live Performances and Today’s Top Videos, according to the company.
Spotify has also been adding more video surfaces across the app. Videos can show up on Home, artist pages, release pages, editorial playlists and the Now Playing view. Followers may also receive push alerts when an artist posts a new video, Spotify said.
The company’s personalized Videos For You playlist recommends clips based on a listener’s habits. If a song has a video available, users can tap “Switch to video” and return to audio without restarting the track.
BTS, Jelly Roll and Swift test the video lane
Spotify has been courting big releases with early premieres. BTS premiered the video for “NORMAL” on Spotify on July 17, 2026, and kept it exclusive there for 48 hours. Spotify said the premiere set a platform record for the most-streamed K-pop music video in one day.
At launch, BTS held six of the top 10 spots on Spotify’s inaugural global music video chart, according to Spotify.
Jelly Roll also gave Premium subscribers a 48-hour early look at “Hands Up,” a video filmed at San Quentin State Prison. Spotify said fans in its beta markets could watch the BTS and Jelly Roll premieres on mobile, desktop or TV by playing the song and choosing “Switch to video.”
Taylor Swift released the video for “Opalite” on Spotify and Apple Music in February 2026 before bringing it to YouTube, according to the reporting cited by the platform.
Independent artists can join in
Spotify said it began letting artists in its beta program upload full-length videos directly through Spotify for Artists on June 17. Nearly 100,000 artists have access to the tool, while others can join a waitlist.
Labels and distributors remain Spotify’s main delivery path for music and video, the company said. The upload option gives participating artists a way to post videos without using those routes.
Spotify said it accepts more than standard music videos, including live performances, acoustic sessions, studio sessions and covers. Eligible videos can earn royalties and may qualify for charts, depending on release and chart rules.
The company pointed to indie rock band The Runarounds as one example. Spotify said listeners who watched the band’s live cover of “Valerie” streamed 67 percent more of its wider catalog than listeners who only heard the audio, and listened to 21 percent more individual tracks.
YouTube still looms large
Spotify’s push arrives after YouTube and Billboard split over chart data in January 2026. The disagreement centered on Billboard’s weighting of paid subscription streams versus free, ad-supported streams, after which YouTube withdrew its U.S. data from Billboard’s song and album charts.
YouTube still has scale. The company has said more than 2 billion logged-in users watch music videos each month, and that it paid more than $8 billion to artists, songwriters, labels and publishers between July 2024 and June 2025.
Spotify says video boosts listening inside its own app. According to the company, users stream a song 64 percent more often in the three weeks after watching its full-length video than comparable listeners who only heard the audio. Spotify also said those viewers are 1.4 times more likely to save, share or add the track to a playlist.
Some users have pushed back on the added video focus. WIRED reported that Spotify videos had sometimes played automatically, using more data and battery, and that some videos swapped album audio for versions with dialogue or sound effects. Spotify has since added settings to disable music videos, Canvas animations and video podcasts.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.