Spotify and Giphy Partner for Music GIFs | New Feature

Spotify and GIPHY Announce New Music Discovery Integration

This morning, Spotify revealed a new collaboration with GIPHY, the online GIF platform, designed to facilitate the discovery of new music. It’s important to note that the GIFs themselves will not directly play audio clips.

Instead, a new feature within select Spotify-linked GIFs will provide users with a clickable button. This button will redirect them directly to Spotify, allowing them to listen to the artist’s music.

Initial Artist Availability

At the initial launch of this integration, artists such as Doja Cat, The Weeknd, Post Malone, Nicki Minaj, The Kid LAROI, and Conan Gray will have these Spotify-linked GIFs available on their official GIPHY profile pages.

Spotify intends to expand the availability to include more artists over time.

Connecting Music with Everyday Communication

The primary goal of this integration is to connect users with Spotify music within their regular online interactions. This includes platforms like text messages, group chats, and any other digital space where GIFs are commonly shared.

This strategy mirrors Spotify’s existing integrations with social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, enabling music sharing through Stories and direct messages.

Ultimately, this functions as a user acquisition strategy, capitalizing on social activities – specifically GIF sharing – while simultaneously increasing artist exposure.

Accessing the New GIFs

Users can locate the new Spotify-linked GIFs on GIPHY.com, on the respective artist’s page, or through the GIPHY mobile application.

These supported GIFs will feature a prominent “Listen on Spotify” button positioned at the bottom, appearing alongside the GIF when it is shared.

Clicking this button will redirect users from the GIF to the artist’s Spotify page, where they can stream music or explore additional songs.

It’s understood that GIPHY collaborated directly with the artists to bring their music to the platform, rather than working through their record labels.

Future Interactive Experiences

Spotify indicates that this feature represents just one aspect of a larger, ongoing partnership with GIPHY.

Future developments will focus on creating a more interactive listening experience for users.

Expanding Partnerships

This collaboration with GIPHY follows a recent strengthening of the relationship between Spotify and Facebook, GIPHY’s parent company.

Facebook acquired GIPHY in 2020 for a reported $400 million, following Google’s acquisition of GIPHY competitor Tenor a couple of years prior.

Since the acquisition, Facebook has been working to integrate GIPHY more closely with its own applications, including Facebook and Instagram.

The “Boombox” Project

Earlier in the year, Facebook and Spotify jointly launched the “Boombox” project.

This project allows Facebook users to listen to music hosted on Spotify directly within the Facebook app while browsing their feed, powered by a “miniplayer” that enables playback for anyone encountering the shared music.

Independent Collaboration

Despite the existing ties between Spotify and Facebook, GIPHY emphasized that its partnership with Spotify was pursued as a separate and independent opportunity.

The company plans to explore further collaborative opportunities with Spotify to enhance the user experience and create even more interactive features as their relationship evolves.

Global Availability

Spotify confirms that the new feature will be accessible to users worldwide, through the pages of verified artists on GIPHY.