It’s about the future of the music business,” Jay Z later said of Iovine.īut as the battle for artists, especially those from the hip-hop/R&B world, heats up, can Grainge – recently named the music business’s most powerful executive – or any other label rival hope to compete? “I think that’s just his competitive nature, and I don’t know if he’s looking at the bigger picture: that it’s not about me and it’s not about him. Last year, Apple paid the Canadian rapper Drake a reported $19m for an exclusive deal – a figure Apple has since disputed – to steal him away from signing with Jay Z’s Tidal. For some artists, the war for subscribers has proved highly profitable even if, as many argue, the services ultimately serve to restrict rather than enhance broader consumer appeal.
The company’s dispute with Swift predates the current trend for “exclusives” among streaming services – often accused of paying pitiful rates to copyright holders – as part of an effort to drive up subscriptions. The download, for which Apple paid the band a reputed $60m, proved to be a PR disaster for the company and the band. Previously, Apple had been forced into an embarrassing apology after loading half a billion Apple iTunes users with the latest U2 album during an iPhone launch.
#Blonde frank ocean album stream trial#
Unhappiness over Apple’s exclusive control of the Frank Ocean release comes a year after Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook, finding it to be “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company” that the firm was refusing to pay artists streaming revenue during its free, three-month trial period.
We’ve got an industry that promotes marginal products that appeal to few and makes them unavailable to most people? That’s hysterical!” “Most people don’t give a crap about the new Frank Ocean album. He says the Cupertino hardware giant whose music arm, Apple Music, is steered by former Universal head Jimmy Iovine, should be investigated by the government over anti-trust concerns “because there’s a conspiracy between Apple Music and the industry to change the game, to get everybody to pay for a subscription by putting hit content behind a paywall”.īut, he continues, the truth is few care. Lefsetz, like many others in the business, believes making exclusive distribution deals is anti-competitive and ultimately harms the consumer and the artist. The ultra-hyped Frank Ocean release coming exclusively through Apple, coupled with a deal announced earlier this month between Apple and Cash Money Records, whose artists include Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Young Money and Birdman, appears to have been sufficient to provoke label executives to action. Both Beyoncé and Rihanna launched their recent albums through Tidal, the streaming service part-owned by Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z.
#Blonde frank ocean album stream download#
The practice of artists offering exclusives to competing streaming and download services, including Apple and Tidal, has been gaining traction this year.
The directive will affect dozens of bands under the UMG umbrella, including all five of this year’s album of the year Grammy nominees: Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Chris Stapleton and Alabama Shakes. UMG, which boasted seven of 2015’s 10 best-selling albums and 38.5% of the year’s recorded-music sales, will be the first major label to ban the practice, which many feel has begun to diminish rather than enhance the way music is distributed and consumed. Just two days after Frank Ocean’s Blonde, one of the biggest releases of the year, was released on Apple’s iTunes, Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group and widely regarded as the most powerful executive in the music industry, has reportedly ordered the company’s labels to stop the practice of making “exclusive” distribution deals with streaming services.Īccording to Bob Lefsetz, author of an influential music industry newsletter, Grainge sent out a company-wide email on Monday.