YouTube Gets Second Dibs on Taylor Swift’s ‘Opalite’ Video

Wait for It: Taylor Swift’s Opalite video-release announcement.

Last year, YouTube — led by Lyor Cohen — took its ball and went home by refusing to share chart data with Billboard on YouTube videos, music-related Shorts, and YouTube Music plays. Now, just three weeks after that pullout went into effect, are we witnessing the brutal payback?

It’s hard to say if the events are directly connected, but the timing is noteworthy. Either way, Taylor Swift has dropped a windowing mini-bomb on her fans and the music industry alike.

Want to check out the video for Taylor Swift’s ultra-catchy, recently-released ‘Opalite’? Well, if you ain’t paying, you ain’t playin’ — at least for a 48-hour window.

Starting this morning, Spotify and Apple Music subscribers only will have access to the official video, with YouTube getting the leftovers two days later. If you’re not a Swiftie or simply trying to tune Taylor out — hey, we get it — this isn’t big news. But for everyone else, including those in the music industry, the move is a clever windowing play that could be replicated by other artists.

It’s unclear why Amazon Music was left out of this party, given that it’s very much a paid platform. But YouTube Music chief Lyor Cohen may be feeling the first blowback from his high-profile pullout from Billboard’s streaming music charts.

Some might opine that in this situation, ‘payback’ is akin to the female canine species, but that would be pure conjecture.

For those just tuning into this imbroglio: YouTube effectively stopped supplying streaming data to Billboard for its U.S. charts starting January 16th, ending a decade-long partnership over a fundamental disagreement regarding data weighting.

The dispute centers on Billboard’s methodology, which values paid subscription streams more heavily than ad-supported ones. While Billboard recently narrowed this gap to a 1:2.5 ratio, YouTube Head of Music Lyor Cohen vociferously argued that “every play should count equally” to accurately reflect modern fan engagement.

Turns out this was a hill Cohen was willing to die on — so let the battle begin.

Billboard’s charts are routinely assailed as being inaccurate and gamed — and there’s certainly some truth to those accusations. But now, Billboard’s rankings are even less accurate.

By withdrawing its metrics, YouTube is removing a massive volume of consumption data—including music videos, YouTube Music, and Shorts—from the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, a move that could significantly disadvantage artists who over-perform with non-subscription audiences.

Billboard maintains that its weighted system better reflects the economic realities of the music industry, but the split leaves the ‘official’ charts without data from the world’s largest video platform, potentially fracturing how success is measured across the industry.

Enter Taylor Swift, who has a long history of defending music’s value, with former Taylor partner Scott Borchetta also spurring the crusade.

Whether this is the start of a new windowing template remains to be seen.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Swift has flirted with a windowing approach. But is the music industry playing with piracy fire here?

At this stage in the game, streaming subscription rates are relatively mature in high-ARPU markets like the United States (as DMN Pro data reaffirms). In that light, giving paid subscribers extra perks makes sense, though restricting access to specific paid platforms while excluding others — which is exactly what’s happening with the ‘Opalite’ vid — may be punishing good-paying customers.

The question is whether limitations like these will drive ‘good actors’ (i.e., paying fans) to the dark side of piracy. Seems like the music industry has witnessed this scenario before — so where’s the learning, man?

More as this develops.