Spotify is exclusively premiering a concert film from superstar artist The Weeknd on its platform this week, as the streaming company expands its video content strategy.
Starting Tuesday (January 7), the 45-minute special, titled Billions Club Live with The Weeknd: A Concert Film, will stream exclusively on Spotify for 48 hours before becoming available on other platforms.
The 48-hour exclusivity window represents Spotify’s first major test of time-limited long-form video content. The move potentially sets a precedent for future releases as the platform continues to evolve beyond its audio-streaming roots. It could see Spotify compete with video platforms such as YouTube, Amazon Prime, or even Netflix in the realm of long-form music-related content.
The concert film includes voiceover commentary from The Weeknd himself, reflecting on his career and relationship with fans. Spotify has also switched on a social media-style comment section for The Weeknd concert film, after making comments available for the Ed Sheeran and Miley Cyrus ‘Billions Club’ series videos. At the time of publication, the Weeknd one had nearly 700 comments from fans.
Spotify nabbing a windowed exclusive long-form piece of content from the Weeknd follows last month’s news of Universal Music Group‘s new deal with SPOT rival Amazon that included “exclusive content” components.
The Weeknd concert film is part of a series of live shows celebrating artists who have racked up billions of streams. The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights became the first song ever to reach 4 billion streams on Spotify in January 2024. The milestone came about a year after Blinding Lights surpassed Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You to become Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time.
The Weeknd’s Spotify concert was held last month at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. The setlist included hits like Can’t Feel My Face, Die For You and Earned It, all of which are featured in the Billions Club.
The concert attracted nearly 2,000 fans. Guests included d4vd, Ava Max, Jimmy Tatro, Patrick Ta, Adam Savani, and Teezo Touchdown.
The concert film represents a departure from Spotify’s previous Billions Club content, which typically consisted of brief six-minute episodes featuring artists like Ed Sheeran and Miley Cyrus. The extended runtime and initial platform exclusivity signal Spotify’s ambitions to compete more directly in the video streaming space.
“This 45+ minute video experience premieres only on Spotify, a reward for the fans who made him a streaming legend. This isn’t just a concert, it’s a celebration of a historic moment in music,” Marc Hazan, Vice President of Partnerships and Marketing at Spotify, said in a press release in December.
Most recently, Hazan told The Hollywood Reporter, “Video in itself is becoming a bigger part of the Spotify experience”.
“What it does allow us to do is create these really amazing moments with artists and bring them not only to those that are in the room, but to everyone on platform,” Hazan was quoted by The Hollywood Reporter as saying.
The timing aligns with the artist’s upcoming projects, including a new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, set for release on January 24. Production of The Weeknd’s concert film was handled by OBB Pictures.
The concert film marks Spotify’s latest video venture after expanding its music video feature to 85 new markets in October 2024. The company initially announced the launch of music videos in beta back in March 2024, when it offered the service in 11 countries – the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Kenya. It later added Egypt to the list.
However, Spotify noted at the time that the US and Canada are still not on the list of new markets.
“Music videos can be watched by Premium subscribers in most non-US countries and regions where Spotify is available,” Spotify said in its support page.
Spotify explained that music videos are “delivered to Spotify by labels and distributors” who handle the distribution of artists’ music and pay streaming royalties.Music Business Worldwide
