Have you ever picked a song on your phone using Spotify and found yourself looking at a 5-10 second looping video? That’s a “Canvas,” a new type of complimentary content Spotify added last year, similar to Genius’ “Behind the Lyrics” annotations. They’re currently attached to new songs from artists like Ariana Grande, Logic, and Demi Lovato. If you listen to any of Spotify’s top playlists, you’ve probably already seen them.
I think Canvas is a neat idea — it’s essentially an album art GIF — but I tend to listen to Spotify rather than watch it, so the idea of an endlessly looping video seems like a silly waste of data. Spotify says Canvas is “optimised to use very little data and battery,” so I don’t want to overemphasize the impact of turning it off, but it’s still something you should consider if you don’t want the annoyance.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to turn this feature off. In the Spotify app on iOS or Android, go to “Your Library” and click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner to reach the Settings menu. In Settings, select “Playback,” scroll down to Canvas, and toggle it off. You can also turn off “Behind The Lyrics” and any other visual features this way.
As Gadget Hacks points out, Spotify will also automatically stop showing you Canvas videos if you use Spotify’s “Data Saver” mode, which you can turn on in the Settings menu. I would avoid this unless you really need it, as Data Saver also lowers the app’s audio quality.
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