But while the temporary exclusivity of Chance’s mixtape didn’t prevent it from charting, the question is begged: If it was also available to Spotify’s 100 million listeners for those first two weeks, could it have hit number one? Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book became the first record to chart on Billboard’s top ten based entirely on streams. In effect, rich men are using access to culture as a competitive weapon against one another in the battle over the future of how the music business works.įor musicians, the impact of exclusives is debatable. And even though major labels are reportedly having second thoughts about the platform exclusivity strategy, Blonde certainly won’t be the last one.Īs streaming becomes the dominant way we listen to music and the competition in the subscription market heats up, these short-term exclusives are one of the few ways that music services can truly compete against one another. It’s the same reason Tidal had the latest records from Kanye, Rihanna, and Beyonce before anybody else did. More to the point, it’s because the company has enough cash in its reserves-and deep music industry relationships, thanks to its absorption of the Beats Music leadership-to get early, exclusive rights to albums like Blonde and Chance The Rapper’s mixtape Coloring Book. Consumers have a right to wonder why their dollars are being lured in new directions, especially now that the internet has spoiled us into expecting to call the shots and, for better or worse, access our culture at little to no financial cost.įortunately, the question has an answer: You can only stream Frank Ocean’s new album on Apple Music (for now) because Apple said so. After all, the big-name artist streaming exclusive is a new feature of the music economy that has cropped up as the relationship between artists and their fans is once again being renegotiated.

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