Animated Artwork for Albums

[GABi131]

I'm a huge fan of the Canvas feature. It’s a brilliant way for artists to add a unique visual layer to their tracks in the "Now Playing" view. However, I believe we can take this visual experience a step further to enrich how we discover and connect with entire albums.

Here’s my idea:

Allow album covers on their main pages to be animated (maybe also even on the "Now playing" screen), much like how Canvas works for individual songs. When a user navigates to an album page, the static art we see now could instead be a short, looping video, creating a much more powerful and immersive first impression.

Why this would be a great improvement:

1. A Richer, More Engaging Browsing Experience: Spotify is already moving in this direction. Personalized playlists like Daylist and Discover Weekly already use dynamic, screen-filling artwork that makes the experience feel more alive and engaging. Applying this same philosophy to album pages is the logical next step. An animated cover would instantly capture the listener's attention, making the exploration of an artist's discography a more exciting and visually stimulating journey.

2. Deeper Artistic Expression for Creators: Albums are complete artistic statements. Giving artists the option of an animated cover would provide them with a powerful new tool to express the theme, mood, and narrative of their work from the very first glance. It would be the digital equivalent of special edition vinyl with lenticular or moving covers.

How it could work:

• Just like Canvas, this would be an optional feature for artists to use.

• The animation would loop while the user is on the album page.

• A toggle could be included in the app's settings for users to disable animations, similar to the current option for Canvas, to manage data, battery concerns or epilepsy issues.

The description showed in the mockup is from de Genius's album page