It's 2016 and the music industry has changed. Music streaming is taking over the way we purchase albums from our favorite artists, and websites like SoundCloud make broadcasting tracks to fans incredibly simple. As music streaming giants, Spotify, Apple Music, and (maybe) Tidal have all battled with each other in a duel of exclusivity.
Exclusivity is the hope that these companies cling onto. Apple Music seems to be the big winner when it comes to this branding technique, and over the last year or so we've seen big artists release music solely to Apple Music. These exclusive releases include the likes of Frank Ocean's "Blond" or Chance the Rappers "Coloring Book." Rival companies take a hit from these releases, and they are then provoked into creating their own exclusive content. Tidal was most famously known for being the only streaming service containing "The Life of Pablo," Kanye West's most recent album. Kanye West took his rage onto Twitter in a flurry of cuss words, where he ranted about how battles between streaming services are ruining music.
As a fan, it's hard to argue with this logic. While it makes sense that part Tidal owner Kanye West would want to end music streaming competition, it also makes sense that fans deserve all content an artist wishes to share with them. To brand music with exclusivity is taking the point away. Artists around the world work on their content so that they can share it with as many people as possible. When bigger artists are forced into these music contracts with streaming services, they're being trapped into limiting their content.
I think a very good example of this is Chance the Rapper. Chance is known for making free music. Yet with his last album release we saw Apple Music as the only paid streaming service with his album in store. Chance stands up for what he believes in in free content, yet we see a big company like Apple taking this exclusivity and using it to their advantage, almost twisting Chance's good message in a bad way. The album was completely free and downloadable online, yet Apple flexed their streaming privilege into a promotion.
The thing that worries me is the censorship of the artist. A free voice is the point of music. While there has always been a big dollar to be made in the entertainment industry, there is no amount of money that should stop a musician from expressing his or her content to their fan base.
