Canvas: Introducing Social Sharing

Canvas Metrics Guide

10 Tips to Get the Most from Your Canvas

If you’re an artist or part of their management team,
we’ll show you how to get the most out of Spotify.

Try to start and end with the same frame for a seamless loop.

3D Graphics

2D Graphics

Mix Media

Video

Hook people, then get them listening. Adding a high-quality Canvas to a track has increased track shares by up to 200% and meaningfully increased visits the artist profile, in addition to lifts in streams and saves.

Share your Canvas artwork directly to Instagram Stories, right from your Spotify for Artists app. Your Canvas will loop in the background of the Story — along with track details and a link back for fans to ‘Play on Spotify’.

Easily add a new Canvas whenever you’re inspired — whether that’s once for your release or again and again — to reach new listeners and keep them coming back.

Connect with listeners in a whole new way with Canvas, a short looping visual you can add to each of your tracks on Spotify. It’s album artwork, for the streaming age.

Follow these tips to give your fans and listeners the best experience on Spotify.

Consider excluding your song title and artist name as they’ll already appear in the Now Playing view.

Choose footage without talking, singing, or rapping.

Avoid rapid video cuts or intense flashing graphics that may overwhelm your listeners/viewers.

Consider how to tell a full story within 3 - 8 seconds. Trimmed down music videos and incomplete stories can leave fans expecting more.

Remember that graphics along the sides of your Canvas (outside the Safe Area) will not show up on some phones.

Heads up: We have some limits on the types of content you can use as a Canvas.

Make sure that you have the correct permissions if you use media that is not your own.

This means that the Canvas should not be hateful, abusive, pornographic, threatening, or obscene.

Canvas is a place for you to enhance and add to your artistic message, and should not be used to sell anything or be overly promotional. Please follow these guidelines:

Do not drive traffic outside of Spotify. This includes but is not limited to directing people to any websites or URLs, ticket vendors, and encouraging follows or likes on social media.

Any text must be relevant to the specific track and not distract from your underlying image/artwork. It should not promote other songs or unrelated albums, social media accounts, brands (including use of Spotify’s logo), products, discounted deals, fan experiences or encourage fans to take part in contests or sweepstakes. Any text should be ancillary to the image or artwork you choose, which should always remain the primary focus of the Canvas surface.

Spotify reserves the right to remove Canvases that misuse the surface for overly promotional purposes.

Canvas appears in a vertical format to completely fill the background of the Now Playing screen.

Canvases are viewed on different types of phones. The Hidden Area will not be visible on taller phones such as the iPhone X and Samsung S9. Additionally, the Player Controls will partially obstruct your Canvas at the top and bottom of the screen on all phones.

Anything inside the Safe Area will be clearly visible to all listeners. 

Download our templates to use in your editing software.

The easiest way to post Canvases across your catalog.

Log in to artists.spotify.com or analytics.spotify.com

Head to the Catalog page, click on a song and click “Add Canvas”

Remember to only use content you own or have rights to use.

First, make sure your app is updated to the latest version from the App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android).

Either shoot a new video on your phone or email/text a video file to yourself and save it to your Photo Library.

Jump into the Spotify for Artists app, tap on an album, and then tap on a track.

Draw listeners in, and take over the screen with a dynamic looping visual that appears in the Now Playing screen.

Share your Canvas artwork directly to Instagram Stories, right from your Spotify for Artists app. 

We've made it easy to understand how your Canvas is resonating with listeners. 

Some best practices for using the visual tool. 

At Austin City Limits, we partnered with 100 artists to celebrate Spotify’s new format for visual expression at Canvas Records. We curated some of the best Canvas visuals that artists have created through Spotify for Artists over the past year — and brought them to life in a whole new way.

La Dispute

Hardwell, JGUAR

SHVPES

Haywyre

J-E-T-S, Machinedrum, Jimmy Edgar, KingJet

Bring Me The Horizon

Passion Pit

The Crystal Method

Andy Mineo

Christian Löffler

KIAN

Young & Sick

KAAZE, Jonathan Mendelsohn

Instupendo

Yeasayer

Studio Black, Emily Burns

Sia, Diplo, Labrinth, LSD, Lil Wayne

Wifisfuneral, Al Benji

Solange

Penny and Sparrow

iann dior

Big Gigantic, Ashe

Das Kope

Alice Longyu Gao

okaywill

Tua, KAZKA

Red Hearse

Gurr

Bibio

Criolo

Foreign Air

Anouk

Tycho, Saint Sinner

The Hails