Spreadbeats

2024 | Music Video, Excel | 4 mins |
We created the world’s first (and only) music video entirely built and experienced inside a real Excel spreadsheet, using nothing but cells, formulas, charts & VBA Macros.
Read More Awards Credits

Spreadbeats

2024 | Music Video, Excel | 4 mins |
We created the world’s first (and only) music video entirely built and experienced inside a real Excel spreadsheet, using nothing but cells, formulas, charts & VBA Macros.
Read More Awards Credits

Description

In 2024, Spotify Advertising and FCB New York challenged us with something that had never been done before: build a complete, fully playable music video inside a single Excel file (under 10MB) that could be safely emailed, opened, and experienced by media planners anywhere in the world.

What followed became the most technically demanding project in Uncharted Limbo Collective’s history. Excel was never meant to be a real-time audio-visual engine, so we had to re-engineer the medium from the ground up, inventing custom systems, tools, and workflows at every step, using only native spreadsheet functionality.

To make Spreadbeats possible, we:

  • Engineered frame-accurate audio–video synchronization inside Excel

  • Built a keyframe-based timeline editor entirely within the spreadsheet

  • Created a custom animation system driven by formulas and cell states

  • Achieved a stable 12 FPS video playback on a 256 × 256 pixel grid

  • Designed a bespoke Excel-native video codec to compress and render footage within spreadsheet limits

  • Repurposed line charts as a real-time drawing engine for animated visuals

  • worked around the different playback and deployment limitations between Excel for Mac and Excel for Windows

Every frame, beat, and transition was processed and played back inside Excel through a purpose-built stack of cells, formulas, charts, VBA macros and custom C++ code - without relying on external video players or other not Excel-native gimmicks.

The result was Spreadbeats: the world’s first full music video built and experienced entirely inside Excel.

The project has received over 100 awards across 2024 and 2025, including:

  • Cannes Lions Grand Prix — Digital Craft

  • Best of Show — The One Show

  • D&AD Black Pencil

  • 15 D&AD Pencils

  • 4 Grand Clios

  • Grand Music Clio

Spreadbeats transformed one of the most familiar workplace tools into an unexpected creative platform, expanding the boundaries of what code, craft, and music video production can be.

Awards

Total: 117

Credits

Client

Spotify

Lead Studios

  • Agency

    Fcbny

  • Production Company

    Uncharted Limbo Collective

  • Animation and Post Production Company

    Colossal

  • Music By

    John Summit

Uncharted Limbo Collective

  • Visual Artist & Project Manager

    Chris Waters

  • Lead Creative Coding & Software Development

    George Adamopoulos

  • Creative Coding & Software Development

    Eleana Polychronaki

  • Technical Artist

    Philip Pappas

FCB New York

  • Global Creative Partner

    Danilo Boer

  • Chief Creative Officer

    Michael Aimette

  • Associate Creative Director

    Roxane Schneider

  • Associate Creative Director

    Pieter Claeys

  • Associate Creative Director

    Tufan Guzeloglu

  • Associate Creative Director

    Michael Demos

  • EVP, Executive Creative Director

    Gary Resch

  • EVP, Executive Creative Director

    Eduardo Tavares

  • Head of Art & Design

    Sy-Jenq Cheng

  • Design Director

    Eric Benitez

  • Senior Designer

    Simon Fernandes

  • Senior Art Director

    Victoria Rocha

  • Creative

    Simon Dolsten

  • Designer

    Ella Ahn

  • SVP, Head of Production & Content

    Nick Williams

  • Senior Integrated Producer

    Margot Meyerhoff

  • VP, Executive Producer

    Sachin Arora

  • Senior Producer

    Alina Carrel

  • Senior Producer

    Rhea Phipps

  • Director of Business Affairs

    Janice Katz

  • CEO

    Emma Armstrong

  • Managing Director

    Suzanne Santiago

  • SVP, Group Account Director

    Tara Graff

  • Management Supervisor

    Jessie Gwilt

  • Management Supervisor

    Sydney Stein

  • Senior Project Manager

    Stefany Garcia

COLOSSAL

  • Animation Director

    Maldita (Rafael Monti, Vinicius Kluge)

  • Executive Creative Director

    Diogo Gameiro

  • Executive Creative Director

    João Machado

  • Executive Creative Director

    Eduardo Lubiazi

  • Head of Post Production

    Daniel Maia

  • Executive Producer

    Carol Cherobim

  • Producer

    Mauricio Kazu Yamashita

  • Post Production Coordinator

    Pamela Almeida

  • Post Production Coordinator

    Yasmim Uehara

  • Post Production Coordinator Assistant

    Nicole Lia Rêgo Da Silva

  • Account

    Camila Pires

  • Account

    Lu Krasa

  • Finance Dept

    Iza Lubiazi

  • Editor

    Rafael Monti

  • Concept Artist

    Diogo Saraiva

  • Concept Artist

    Leandro Dexter

  • Concept Artist

    Fernando Molina

  • Concept Artist

    Gustavo Perg

  • Concept Artist

    Thallison Diniz

  • Concept Artist

    Henri Kluge

  • Pixel Art

    Didi Gameboy

  • Pixel Art

    Gabriela Zanatta

  • Pixel Art

    Marcelo Colmenero

  • Pixel Art

    Lucas Matheus

  • 2D Animation

    Gabriela Zanatta

  • 2D Animation

    André Ruivo

  • 2D Animation

    Gui Kirinus

  • Code Animation

    Tameem Sankari

  • Motion Graphics

    Lucas Santiago

  • Motion Graphics

    Adelir Cherry

  • Motion Graphics

    Diego Loz

  • Motion Graphics

    Gabriel Rocha

  • Motion Graphics

    Renan Santa Terra

  • Edit Assistant

    Igor Angelo

  • Edit Assistant

    Ricardo Varela

  • Edit Assistant

    Eduardo Oliveira

Spotify

  • Head of Global Business Marketing

    Grace Kao

  • Global Creative Director

    Richard Frankel

  • Global Director, Business Brand Marketing

    Bridget Evans

  • Global Business Brand Marketing Lead

    Jessica Levinsohn

  • Project Manager

    Sam Mark

Additional Credits

  • Website Case Study Design

    Lucas Oro

  • Website Case Study Design

    Ste Bressan

Support Video Case Study

  • Studio

    Bogota

  • Post-Production Direction, Editor

    Caja Guedes

  • Post-Production Direction, Designers + Motion Graphic

    Denise Azzi

  • Post-Production Coordinator

    Jessica Marques

  • Designers, Motion Graphics

    Gessica Secchi

  • 3D Animation

    Tiago Bahia
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