With the long anticipated Frank Ocean album, blond (or also blonde), finally being released last week, social media's dream boy finally fulfilled the wishes of his pleading fans. Thus far, no one is disappointing by the project - that is, those willing to pay for an Apple Music subscription to hear blond this first week. Just as Beyoncé's previous two albums, BEYONCÉ and Lemonade, were also released on select streaming services, Frank Ocean has not made his album readily or easily available.

I applaud these artists for giving the finger to record labels (who used to have a greater control over album releases) and sleazy streaming services who skimp on artist payout. But is this extreme exclusivity also giving the finger to consumers?

It all just feels so capitalist to me, that these artists are focusing on cutting out the middleman with services such as TIDAL, owned by Jay-Z himself. Prince, too, decided to pull his music off of streaming sites long before his passing. Have these artists figured out that they're famous enough to do whatever they want and people will desperately purchase whatever app or subscription is needed for access to their new music?

If anything, it's just inspiring more people to find ways to illegally download it. Long gone are the days of Limewire and Frostwire, but Pirate Bay is still in its prime. Kanye West's The Life of Pablo, just like Frank Ocean's album, was exclusive for a few weeks before finding its way onto most basic streaming sites and even YouTube, and its release date also changed multiple times before kind of coming out of nowhere.

Frank Ocean has a great voice, a powerful social media presence, and an enticing air of enigma around him... but this ridiculously, long-drawn out album release has kind of turned me off from downloading blond/blonde any time soon. Sure, maybe Apple Music has their 3-month subscription for me to take advantage of - but I feel that Ocean's multiple misdirects and long silences (and to rehash my main point, the exclusivity) won't have me rushing to make my "purchase" in the foreseeable near-future.

At least I had 35+ years (minus the time I wasn't alive) to listen to Prince's hits, and at least Beyoncé had a complete visual album with a set date (even though only she knew it). Maybe I need to drop scumbag Spotify, but is Apple Music truly the superior service? Are my many overpriced iTunes downloads of yesteryear a good reason to distrust Apple?

This is stressing me out and I'm soooo over the exclusivity thing. Maybe I should let the soothing sounds of nostalgia, ULTRA and channel ORANGE put me in a better mood.