In today’s world full of so many applications that do very similar things, Apple Music is stepping away from one of its distinctive features. For those unfamiliar with Apple Music, album exclusives were one of its big draws. It allows the service to stream a brand new album for a limited time, often before any other music source is able to stream it. However, they seem to be moving away from it due to some negative feedback from record labels. In reality this is a win for the consumer.
In a recent interview with Music Business Worldwide, Apple exec Jimmy Iovine said that they plan to reduce the number of album exclusives to be streamed in the future. He pointed out,
“We’ll still do some stuff with the occasional artist. The labels just don’t seem to like it and ultimately it’s their content.”
The introduction of exclusives has come to be disliked by record labels because they might be detrimental to an album’s overall streaming numbers. If a new album was only available for the first two weeks of its existence, it could result in lost revenue for labels. After Frank Ocean released his album Blonde independently on Apple Music last year, the CEO of Universal Music Group told the company’s labels to stop making exclusive deals with streaming networks. Chance the Rapper revealed in March that Apple paid him $500,000 for a two-week exclusive on his Grammy-winning Coloring Book.
Instead, Apple Music has lately been focusing more on exclusive video. “We’re doing exclusive videos content now, and putting a lot of money into that,” explained Iovine. In an interview, he said Apple plans to debut 10 different series on the service before the end of 2017. With Apple Worldwide Developers Conference just around the corner, we may hear further details about what Apple Music has in store for the future very soon.