{"id":250532,"date":"2026-02-05T22:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=250532"},"modified":"2026-02-06T12:46:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:46:57","slug":"taylor-swift-to-premiere-opalite-music-video-on-spotify-and-apple-music-with-youtube-release-delayed-by-two-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/taylor-swift-to-premiere-opalite-music-video-on-spotify-and-apple-music-with-youtube-release-delayed-by-two-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift to premiere ‘Opalite’ music video on Spotify and Apple Music – with YouTube release delayed by two days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Swift<\/strong> will release the music video for Opalite<\/em>\u00a0exclusively on Spotify Premium<\/strong> and Apple Music<\/strong> on Friday (February 6) at 8am ET.<\/p>\n

The video will not be available on YouTube<\/strong> until Super Bowl Sunday (February 8), meaning the pop superstar is windowing a major music video premiere on paid streaming platforms before its YouTube release.<\/p>\n

Opalite<\/em> is the second single from Swift’s album The Life of a Showgirl<\/em>, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200<\/a> in October 2025 with 4.002 million equivalent album units \u2014 the largest single-week consumption figure in the chart’s history, surpassing Adele’s 25<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Alongside the music video announcement, Swift’s online store launched a limited 48-hour pre-order window<\/a> for a blue pearlescent Opalite<\/em>\u00a07-inch vinyl, priced at $10.99.<\/p>\n

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Swift’s decision to premiere the video first on subscription platforms follows YouTube’s withdrawal from Billboard’s US charts<\/a>, which took effect on January 16.<\/p>\n

YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen<\/strong> announced the move in December, one day after Billboard revealed changes to its chart methodology that narrowed the weighting gap between paid and ad-supported streams.<\/p>\n

Under Billboard’s previous formula, one album unit equalled 1,250 paid streams or 3,750 ad-supported streams \u2014 a 1:3 ratio.<\/p>\n

The new methodology tightens that to 1:2.5, with one unit now equalling 1,000 paid streams or 2,500 ad-supported streams.<\/p>\n

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Cohen argued the changes did not go far enough, insisting that all streams should be counted equally regardless of whether they come from paid subscriptions or ad-supported services.<\/p>\n

“Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported,” Cohen said in December.<\/p>\n

“This doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don’t have a subscription.”<\/p>\n

With YouTube no longer contributing data to Billboard, views on the platform have no impact on chart positions.<\/p>\n

Swift’s two-day windowing strategy ensures the “Opalite” video will accumulate streams exclusively on platforms where every play counts toward the Hot 100.<\/p>\n

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2018: BILLBOARD TIPS THE SCALES TOWARD PAID<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The question of how to weight different types of streams has been contested since Billboard first introduced tiered streaming values in 2018.<\/p>\n

Prior to that change, all streams \u2014 whether from paid services like Apple Music or ad-supported platforms like YouTube \u2014 were counted equally.<\/p>\n

In a 2017 interview with MBW<\/a>, Apple’s Jimmy Iovine<\/strong> argued that having YouTube streams count equally alongside paid-for music on Billboard’s Hot 100 disadvantaged artists.<\/p>\n

Iovine was unequivocal about his view that paid streams should carry more weight on industry charts. “I’ll put it this way: people who pay for subscriptions should be advantaged,” he said. “The labels owe it to their customers.”<\/p>\n

He added: “The most important thing for labels is to make the paid services compelling and entertaining. And don’t make free services as good as the paid services. Is that not obvious?!”<\/p>\n

When the 2018 changes were implemented, paid subscription streams were weighted more heavily than ad-supported streams on both charts.<\/p>\n

On the Hot 100, paid streams were given full point value, ad-supported streams two-thirds, and programmed streams half. On the Billboard 200, it took three times as many ad-supported streams (3,750) as paid streams (1,250) to equal one album unit.<\/p>\n

Recent data<\/a> shows that the US recorded music industry’s overall streaming revenue performance in 2024 was dragged down by payouts from on-demand, ad-supported music services, including YouTube and Spotify’s free tier.<\/p>\n

Combined, these platforms saw their revenue contribution to the recorded music industry decline in the US last year, down 1.8% YoY to $1.83 billion.<\/p>\n

However, Spotify’s overall<\/em> US payouts<\/a> \u2014 across both its free and Premium tiers \u2014 grew by double-digits in 2024, outpacing the wider market.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on-demand paid subscription platforms contributed $11.685 billion to recorded music rightsholders, up 4.6% YoY.<\/p>\n

The disparity in revenue per stream between paid and free tiers is at the heart of the debate.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

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As Iovine put it in 2017: “The fact is that ‘free’ in music streaming is so technically good and ubiquitous that it’s stunting the growth of paid streaming. Two things have to happen: free has to become more difficult or restricted, and the paid services have to get better.”<\/p>\n

Cohen’s decision to withdraw from Billboard represents a reversal from 2019, when he welcomed YouTube’s inclusion in the Billboard 200, calling it a “very important moment in making the chart a more accurate representation of what people are listening to.”<\/p>\n

At that time, Cohen said: “Genres like Latin, hip-hop and electronic, which consistently dominate the YouTube charts, will now be properly recognized for their popularity. This is another great step in bringing YouTube and the industry together.”<\/p>\n

YouTube reported in October<\/a> that it paid more than $8 billion to the music industry during the 12 months from July 2024 to June 2025, covering revenue from both advertising and subscriptions on the Google-owned platform.<\/p>\n

In his December statement, Cohen directed fans to YouTube’s own charts as an alternative to Billboard’s lists.<\/p>\n

“If you’re curious about what music is making waves on YouTube, you can visit our charts,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The video will not be available on YouTube until Super Bowl Sunday (February 8)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":241289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250532"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250570,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250532\/revisions\/250570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}