Systems and methods for providing content items to users are disclosed. In an example, a system is configured to divide a content item into a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion begins at a chronological beginning of the content item and ends at a predetermined number of digital units from the chronological beginning of the content item. The system is also configured to encode the first portion according to an encoding format and store the first portion at a first data storage location remote from the computer system. The system is further configured to encode the second portion according to the encoding format and store the second portion at a second data storage location.