Taylor Swift withholds ‘Opalite' music video from YouTube: Here's why

Taylor Swift has initiated a new business plan to boost her streaming revenue with the release of the Opalite music video.

The Life of a Showgirl creator has withheld her newly unveiled music video from streaming on YouTube due to the platform’s recent ruling.

According to YouTube’s official blog post from December, the video streaming network shifted its policy to reserve its data from Billboard, citing the charting platform’s “outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported.”

YouTube argued that Billboard’s strategy keeps non-subscribers from contributing to “massive engagement” — “We’re simply asking that every stream is counted fairly and equally, whether it is subscription-based or ad-supported — because every fan matters and every play should count,” the official blog entry from YouTube stated.

The platform further announced that after “decade-long partnership and extensive discussions” with Billboard, a decision was reached to not let YouTube’s data deliver or factor into the latter’s charts, starting January 16.

Therefore, Taylor’s latest music video was only released on Apple Music and Spotify, while YouTube will be able to host the new release from February 8 — delayed two days from the video’s official launch.

Taylor Swift directed the new music video herself, while it features starry cameos from Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lewis Capaldi, and Graham Norton — the pop star’s fellow guests, and host, from an October 2025 episode of The Graham Norton Show.