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Disney Plus: How to watch Taylor Swift's new Folklore concert special right now

The original film, an intimate session with the singer-songwriter's new album, is available starting today.

Carrie Mihalcik Former Managing Editor / News
Carrie was a managing editor at CNET focused on breaking and trending news. She'd been reporting and editing for more than a decade, including at the National Journal and Current TV.
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Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Carrie Mihalcik
Katie Collins
3 min read
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Disney Plus; screenshot by Carrie Mihalcik/CNET

Taylor Swift on Tuesday revealed that a behind-the-scenes special exploring songs from her latest album, Folklore, is coming to Disney Plus on Wednesday. The streaming service described the film, entitled Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, as an "intimate concert" of the singer-songwriter's record-breaking album. 

The film-album-concert is now officially available on Disney Plus, as of 12:01 a.m. PT (3:01 a.m. ET, 8:01 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday.

"Well it's 11/24 and 24-11=13 so I've got an announcement," Swift wrote in a tweet on Tuesday. "You haven't seen this film before folklore: the long pond studio sessions will be out tonight at midnight PST on Disney Plus!"

In a surprise move, Swift released Folklore over the summer. She planned and recorded the album amid the coronavirus pandemic and also directed the album's first music video, entitled Cardigan. Aaron Dessner of The National co-wrote or produced 11 of the 16 tracks on Folklore, which also includes an appearance by musician Bon Iver.  

The special was filmed at Dessner's Long Pond recording studio in upstate New York in September, according to a release from Disney. In the special, Swift performs each song from the album, accompanied by Dessner and Jack Antonoff, and reveals stories behind all 17 tracks, according to a Disney. The film was directed by Swift. 

"Folklore was an album that was made completely in isolation, which means that Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff‎ and I never saw each other while we were collaborating and creating the album," Swift told Good Morning America in a recorded message on Tuesday. "But we got together at Long Pond studio and for the very first time got to create this music together, play through it, talk through it."

It's far from the first time Swift has collaborated with a streaming service to create original content -- earlier this year she also released her City of Lover concert exclusively on Disney Plus. Netflix , on the other hand, played host to her Reputation Stadium Tour movie and the Sundance documentary Miss Americana.

When to watch the film?

Disney Plus subscribers can watch Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions as part of their paid-for plan from 12.01 a.m. PT (3.01 a.m. ET, 8:01 a.m. GMT) on Nov 25. 

Disney Plus serves a wide variety of regions, which sometimes means its content becomes available a little earlier than the scheduled time depending on where you live. If you're a Swift superfan and are keen to be among the first to watch the film, it's worth checking to see if the film hits early in your region.

Watch this: What's new to stream for November 2020

How to watch on Disney Plus

To watch Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, you'll need to have one of the Disney Plus streaming service subscriptions below. Note that you can cancel anytime.

There are three basic ways to subscribe:

If you don't see Folklore highlighted at the top of Disney Plus, you can search by selecting the magnifying glass icon and typing the movie's name.

How to listen to Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions soundtrack

Even if you don't have a Disney Plus subscription, you can still enjoy the experience of listening to the film's soundtrack, which is set to hit music streaming services at just after midnight PT. And here's how to listen to Folklore, the album that started it all, on the streaming service of your choice.