Have you ever dreamt of designing art for your favorite musician? That could now become a reality, as Spotify is leveraging its purchase of SoundBetter to create a marketplace for Canvas designs.

What Is Canvas?

According to Spotify, Canvas is a way to "engage your fans in a whole new way." Simply put, it's a short looping visual (realistic, animated, or otherwise) that appears on songs when using Spotify on mobile.

The feature first appeared in 2019 and more artists are starting to make use of it. If Spotify's data is to be believed, it's easy to understand why.

That's because Spotify claims that, when a song uses Canvas, users are 5% more likely to keep streaming, 145% more likely to share the track, and 20% more likely to add it to their playlists.

Canvas also integrates outside of Spotify. If you share the track to Instagram Stories, the Canvas art will loop in the background.

The likes of Gorillaz, Billie Eilish, and Dua Lipa all use Canvas in different ways for their music.

Spotify Launches a Canvas Marketplace

SoundBetter is a music production marketplace that Spotify acquired in 2019.

Now, Spotify has made it possible for artists to advertise their talents for Canvas designs. SoundBetter has a Canvas section which musicians can browse to view the talent on offer, then hire someone to create their visuals.

The company said that they "want to make it as easy as possible for artists to find visual artists to help them create eye-catching visuals". SoundBetter is a great way to achieve that.

At the time of writing, artists featured on SoundBetter have created for people like Ariana Grande, Usher, and Zedd.

While these larger musicians are unlikely to be hiring these creatives directly, since they are often supported by a team or a record label, it's great that unknown artists can gain exposure in this way.

In a statement, Spotify said of the process:

After selecting a designer, artists share details on the sonics of their track and their creative vision, which the designer then takes into account to create a custom Canvas tailored to meet their needs.

Create Spotify Playlist Artwork

Have a play through the top tracks on Spotify and you'll soon come across Canvas in action. Think you've got what it takes to design some? Head on over to SoundBetter and pitch your skills.

If you want to use your artistic skills more on Spotify, don't forget that you can design custom artwork for your playlists.