“What a beautiful and unforgettable experience as an artist,” The Weeknd says in voiceover early into his new Spotify exclusive concert film.
Billions Club Live with The Weeknd: A Concert Film is the first for the streaming platform. Released natively on the streaming platform first, the over 45-minute film chronicles the artist’s December Billions Club Live show. The inaugural live event invited a crop of The Weeknd’s top listeners to an airplane hangar at Santa Monica airport for a one-night, exclusive concert that featured his Billions Club songs including “Can’t Feel My Face,” “The Hills,” “Earned It,” “I Feel It Coming” and “Save Your Tears.”
The Weeknd, on face value, appears as a perfect pick for Spotify’s first Billions Club Live and its concert film, but it goes deeper than just the artist’s large streaming numbers (The Weeknd has more songs in Spotify’s Billions Club than any other musician and holds the title for most streamed song with his 2020 hit “Blinding Lights.”). “It kind of feels like we’ve grown up together,” Spotify’s VP of marketing and partnerships Marc Hazan tells The Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview. “If you look at the timeline of The Weeknd and Spotify, they’re pretty tightly interlinked. He came up the same time we did.”
Hazan says Spotify worked with the “Starboy” artist’s team to find a way to mark the occasion of 25 of his songs reaching the Billions Club, and they settled on a concert that he could perform those songs (and more) for over 1,700 of his top fans on the streaming platform. Then that could be released as a film, produced by OBB Pictures, in way Spotify had never done before.
Billions Club Live with The Weeknd: A Concert Film is indicative of a new era of Spotify, which has been in the works for some time. “Video in itself is becoming a bigger part of the Spotify experience,” Hazan says, noting that podcasts have evolved to include videos and music videos are currently in beta on the platform.
“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,” he continues.
The platform hopes that the unexpected film drop will “surprise and delight” Spotify users. “They’re going to have long form video content in a way that they’ve never had it before. Our users and fans of The Weeknd are going to get to experience this first on Spotify,” Hazan explains. “It is part of that kind of evolution of a platform where consumption evolves from being about just your ears to your eyes and your ears. I think this is the direction of travel.”
The Weeknd fans have the ability to watch the 48-minute film on Spotify in nearly all markets. The film also features voiceover of the artist reflecting on his career and expressing gratitude to fans.
The Weeknd is preparing to release a new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, on Jan. 24. It will serve as the finale to his album trilogy following 2022’s Dawn FM and 2020’s After Hours. He’s slated to perform a one-night-only concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena the following day. A Lionsgate suspense thriller of the same name – starring and produced by The Weeknd, alongside Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan – is slated for release on May 16.
English (US) ·