It’s Taylor Swift’s birthday today. She’s 29. Which means we have a month to go before an entire year of conversations and think-pieces about Taylor turning 30 and what she’s done and what she’s going to do and this, that, and the other. Nobody needs to hurry this discussion. It’ll happen soon enough. 

To celebrate her birthday, Taylor’s gave a gift to her fans. 

 

So, for those of you, those of us, who are not going out on New Year’s Eve (we either have people over for food and drink and board games or we go to someone else’s for food and drink and board games, in pyjamas, preferably), Taylor’s bringing the entertainment, a bonus for the people who didn’t see her on the reputation stadium tour. That would be me. 

 

Is it interesting to you that this is on Netflix though? First of all, Netflix has all the f-cking money, God. I don’t know how long certain segments of Hollywood can afford – literally – to be resistant. Netflix has ALL THE MONEY. But also… Taylor has a deal with DirecTV. Doesn’t she actually have her own channel on DirecTV? The problem with DirecTV or, rather, the advantage of Netflix is that it’s worldwide where DirecTV is US only and Taylor would want all her fans, around the world, to be able to watch the reputation concert special. Which is probably why she wasn’t restricted from doing the deal with Netflix and make even more money from it, on top of the money she’s been making from DirecTV. 

For a while there, HBO used to be the place for major artist concert specials. Netflix has come for HBO in prestige scripted television, documentary, and more, and now it’s the concert specials. Taylor’s not the first recording artist to have her concert special on Netflix (Barbra Streisand has a deal with Netflix for her vintage performances) but she may be the biggest currently charting artist to do so. Who’s next?