One of the more contentious issues to rear its ugly head in the music world recently is the issue of exclusive streaming rights. There are a bunch of music streaming platforms, and unless you’re rich as hell, you’ll probably only be signed up to one of ’em. A culture of exclusivity has developed where big artists will often only release their album on one platform, often to great fanfare.
Tidal poaches a lot of them, and Apple Music – with Apple’s basically limitless budget – scores a whole bunch of them too. Frank Ocean‘s new albums are a prime example: both Endless and Blonde hit Apple Music exclusively, which might be a slight annoyance to Spotify-subscribed Frank fans.
Really, the only winners out of that arrangement are the platforms themselves. It’s massive annoyance to fans, and the artists themselves – while scoring a hefty chunk of cash, probably – aren’t getting the reach they could otherwise. My piracy sense is tingling, and the labels would really have only themselves to blame.
But there might be a light at the end of the tunnel for exclusive-haters. According to Bob Lefsetz, who writes an influential music industry newsletter, Universal Music has issued a company-wide ban on offering streaming exclusives. Zip. Nada. Considering Universal is responsible for 7 of the 10 top-selling albums in 2015, that’s a big deal.
It might not be totally selfless though: apparently Universal are stinging after Frank Ocean released Blonde without their assistance, purely through Apple Music. It looks like the shoe is on the other foot, and big artists are seeing a way they can cut past the record labels and do their own thing. That’s a painful pill to swallow.
Many within the industry aren’t crash hot on exclusives, believing them to be anti-competitive and ultimately pretty shithouse for the consumer. We tend to agree. Hopefully this gets the ball rolling.
Source: High Snobiety.
Photo: Getty Images.
