TL;DR
Spotify’s New Music Friday now features short-form videos from its editorial team discussing new releases and rising artists. US only for now, free and premium.
Spotify is adding short-form videos from its editorial team to New Music Friday, its flagship weekly playlist for new releases. The videos feature Spotify’s curators sharing their picks, spotlighting rising artists, and explaining the stories behind songs and albums. The feature is rolling out to free and premium users in the US first.
“New Music Friday has always been about helping fans discover the best new music each week,” said John Stein, Spotify’s Head of North America Editorial. “By bringing our editors directly into the experience, we’re giving listeners a closer connection to the people behind the playlist.”
The update builds on The Drop Weekly, an in-app editorial series Spotify launched in September 2025 where editors break down new releases and discuss cultural moments. That feature has not yet rolled out globally. Spotify told TechRadar it is focused on “establishing and nailing the editor-led videos in the U.S.” before considering expansion.
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The move puts faces to a process that has always been invisible. Spotify’s editorial playlists are among the most powerful distribution channels in music, with New Music Friday placements capable of making or breaking a release week. Until now, the people making those selections have been anonymous. The videos introduce them as personalities with perspectives, not just algorithmic outputs.
It is also Spotify’s latest push into video within the app. The company has been expanding video controls, adding music video playback, and investing in video podcasts. Short-form video dominates discovery on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Spotify is trying to capture some of that behaviour without ceding discovery entirely to platforms it does not control.
The broader context is that content platforms are competing on editorial voice, not just catalogue size. Apple Music has long differentiated on human curation with named editors and artist interviews. Spotify’s algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly and Daylist are popular, but they lack the human element that makes editorial recommendations feel authoritative. These videos are an attempt to close that gap.
Whether users watch them is another question. Spotify’s video features have historically seen modest engagement. But New Music Friday is one of the platform’s most-visited destinations, making it a high-traffic testing ground. If the videos add value there, expect them to expand to other editorial playlists and eventually beyond the US.
