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[SeroTyler]

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.

According to Bob Lefsetz, author of an influential music industry newsletter, Grainge sent out a company-wide email on Monday. 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.

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.

The practice of artists offering exclusives to competing streaming and download services, including Apple and Tidal, has been gaining traction this year. Both Beyoncé and Rihanna launched their recent albums through Tidal, the streaming service part-owned by Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z.

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.

Lefsetz, like many others in the business, believes making exclusive distribution deals is anti-competitive and ultimately harms the consumer and the artist.

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”.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ing-exclusives-frank-ocean-release?CMP=twt_gu

 

[The Faceless Master]

the piracy numbers must be outweighing the exclusivity bonus

 

[Tallshortman]

Good it's getting extremely dumb.

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

Wow 👏👏👏👏👏 I hope Sony follows suit because this practice is disgusting.

 

[Easy_D]

Wow a record label doing something positive. I'll be damned.

 

[killertofu]

Good. Apple Music blows hard chunks

 

[Arc]

Good. There will be no fair competition in streaming with the size of Apple's pockets.

 

[Baki]

Labels and certain artist can act almost independently.

If Taylor Swift wants to do an exclusive. She will.

Let's see how this plays out.

 

[infiniteloop]

dude is being paid off by Big Spotify.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Thank ya jesus.

 

[LionPride]

Yall know they just really mad that Frank left Def Jam therefore Universal ain't see a dime

 

[TWrecks310]

Thank god.

It's not even that they make it exclusive, games do the same thing, it's that they make it exclusive with no warning and no communication on when it will end.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Labels and certain artist can act almost independently.

If Taylor Swift wants to do an exclusive. She will.

Let's see how this plays out.

It largely depends on the artists deals. Multi album contract obligations can result in artists getting stuck in limbo regardless how big they are if they don't fulfil the obligations.

Even smaller labels that appear independent often have distribution deals with larger labels. This move won't stop the practice cold but it's a pretty big step towards stemming the tide.

 

[Mortemis]

Awesome. It won't stop Apple or whoever from bumping up the money sack if they feel it's helping hen, but it's definitely a start. Exclusive music releases suck.

 

[Lebron]

So ends the game of fuckery with that nonsense

 

[manakel]

THANK YOU! This practice is disgusting and needs to be stopped.

 

[Plum]

Buying in ready-made exclusives should be outlawed for every medium, this is a really great start.

 

[SeroTyler]

Yall know they just really mad that Frank left Def Jam therefore Universal ain't see a dime

Dude does seem a little mad at Frank for releasing Blonde independently.

“Most people don’t give a crap about the new Frank Ocean album...Shame on you Frank, and shame on everybody else who takes money from Apple and screws fans. There’s enough money in music without taking every last buck, and the joke is on you, for thinking so short term."

 

[Killer Queen]

Yall know they just really mad that Frank left Def Jam therefore Universal ain't see a dime

Ayyyyyyy you're back
I missed you

 

[Subpar Spatula]

Like this matters, isn't pirating on the up and up each year?

 

[LionPride]

Dude does seem a little mad at Frank for releasing Blonde independently.

He big mad or little mad

Ayyyyyyy you're back
I missed you

Aww

Like this matters, isn't pirating on the up and up each year?

What do you mean by this

 

[walking fiend]

I read it as bans streaming of exclusive releases, and I was quite confused

 

[MThanded]

They mad at Frank. However he didn't have a streaming exclusive. You could buy it day one on iTunes DRM free. Coloring book was a streaming exclusive.


I don't like streaming exclusives though.

 

[giga]

“Shame on you Frank, and shame on everybody else who takes money from Apple and screws fans. There’s enough money in music without taking every last buck, and the joke is on you, for thinking so short term, you want your music available to everybody, because in these days of information overload we need nobody, everybody is superfluous, you don’t want to enter the marketplace with one hand tied behind your back,” he wrote.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blonde/id1146195596

Spend the damn $10.

 

[killertofu]

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blonde/id1146195596

Spend the damn $10.

No.

I've never understood buying a digital album. I'll spend 10$ on a damn CD, thanks. I'll get everything else through streaming

 

[giga]

No.

I've never understood buying a digital album. I'll spend 10$ on a damn CD, thanks. I'll get everything else through streaming

Why does a piece of plastic that costs pennies make it more valuable to you?

 

[killertofu]

Why does a piece of plastic that costs pennies make it more valuable to you?

Because I can touch it. Because physical means you mean it. Because it won't get lost with all the other digital things in my life that I don't care enough about.

Edit: Also because I like cover art and reading lyrics.

 

[giga]

Because I can touch it. Because physical means you mean it. Because it won't get lost with all the other digital things in my life that I don't care enough about.

This is weird. But you do you. But for the rest and majority of the population, the digital album is there for you to buy and download, DRM-free.

 

[killertofu]

This is weird. But you do you. But for the rest and majority of the population, the digital album is there for you to buy and download, DRM-free.

Why is that weird? I really haven't bought an album in a while but digital download is an odd stopgap between physical and streaming.

 

[Glass Rebel]

“Shame on you Frank, and shame on everybody else who takes money from Apple and screws fans. There’s enough money in music without taking every last buck, and the joke is on you, for thinking so short term, you want your music available to everybody, because in these days of information overload we need nobody, everybody is superfluous, you don’t want to enter the marketplace with one hand tied behind your back,” he wrote.

so high up his own ass I'm sure he could hijack those elusive apple music airwaves

 

[GamingOblivion]

This is weird. But you do you. But for the rest and majority of the population, the digital album is there for you to buy and download, DRM-free.

you know what else you can do with a cd? rip it and put it on any device you want for free at much higher quality.

oh, and you can upload it to your Google Music account and stream it from your phone for free

 

[Vanillalite]

the piracy numbers must be outweighing the exclusivity bonus

This plus people ignoring it when it does come out later either out of spite or just feeling its old even if its new to that servicd

This isn't some big pro consumer move.

Universal just ran the numbers.

 

[Subpar Spatula]

What do you mean by this

If piracy is on the up and up they should be looking for ways to make the music more acceptable even if it's an exclusive.

It's a bunch of old people who think this will help consumers (when he's just salty he gets no money).

 

[giga]

you know what else you can do with a cd? rip it and put it on any device you want for free at much higher quality.

oh, and you can upload it to your Google Music account and stream it from your phone for free

I doubt the majority of people are ripping lossless, let alone storing lossless audio on devices with low capacities. Not sure what Google Music has to do with this, since you can upload iTunes music purchases there if you want.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

So I just read that Blond was a independent release and Endlesss was Frank completing his Def Jam contract. Kinda explains why UMG was heated. Frank boss moved them out of that 250K.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

As an apple music subscriber this doesn't bother me one bit. If apple wants subscribers they should be focused on their app not being a piece of shit.. Not strong arming subs via exclusivity.

Spotify is winning for a reason and its not exclusives.

 

[Not]

the piracy numbers must be outweighing the exclusivity bonus

yup

 

[breakfuss]

About time. It's getting out of hand.

 

[Jeels]

I'm happy they are doing this as a Spotify only user. Screw apple paying off artists for their platform.

 

[Androidsleeps]

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blonde/id1146195596

Spend the damn $10.

No. Also, the fucking release isn't available in every region on iTunes so...
They need to figure this shit out and stop it with all the exclusive streaming on [whatever].

I don't have the receipts but I'm sure the piracy numbers for Blond, Lemonade and Pablo were through the roof. Make your product harder to get, people will resort to easy piracy.

 

[LionPride]

If piracy is on the up and up they should be looking for ways to make the music more acceptable even if it's an exclusive.

It's a bunch of old people who think this will help consumers (when he's just salty he gets no money).

No, I meant what did you mean by saying piracy is on the up and up