Exclusive access
promotes bad.
markets and
illegal obtaining
of content

> Why art exclusivity hurts consumers
and artists

  

Cazzy Lewchuk
Staff Writer

 

Ron Beyoncé dropped

n unannounced album,
Lemonade. Lemonade was
accessible exclusively on Tidal, a
digital music streaming service
that happens to be owned
by Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z,
but has been released for sale
outside of the service. Tidal
is a newer entry to the music-
streaming market, attempting
to compete with larger services
like Spotify and Apple Music
with its exclusive content.

In February, the new Kanye
West album The Life of Pablo
was also released as a Tidal
exclusive. Kanye is one of the
biggest artists in the world. He’s
sold over 21-million albums and
much more in digital downloads/
streaming royalties. This meant
that there was a lot of frustration
when his album dropped. Many
consumers simply did not want
to sign up (and pay) fora new
service when they already using
other reliable music distributors.

Music accessibility has
changed in the last few years. Few

people pay for individual albums
and even fewer pay for physical
copies. It’s understandable that
certain artists may choose to
forgo the CD distribution path
altogether and go digital only.
But releasing an album on one
platform does not allow for
easy access. If you want people
to hear your music—whether
you're a major A-list artist or an
independent local musician—
it’s important to make it easy
to listen to and pay for. A
major side effect of Beyoncé
and Kanye’s exclusivity was
illegal downloading, another
frequently used method of
listening to music in 2016. The
Life of Pablo was downloaded
over 500,000 times in its first
week of release alone. How many
of those downloads would’ve
been prevented—translating
to cash revenue for Kanye, his
producers, and the distributor—
if the album was simply released
on all formats straightaway?
Kanye promoted his album
as a Tidal exclusive “forever.” A
couple of weeks later, it was made
available for streaming on Apple
Music, Spotify, Google Play, and
as a straight-up purchase on

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his website. This was no doubt
due to Kanye’s realization of the
millions of dollars he was losing
out on. As for Lemonade, it was
made available on iTunes only
a few days after its release, and
will be released on CD May 6.
A-listers can ultimately
choose to release their art
however they want. Most of

them have millions of dollars
already, and probably don't

care personally about potential
streams/downloads lost
(especially if they have a vested
interest like Kanye West and
Beyoncé, who are both partial
owners of Tidal). It’s perhaps the
record companies who get hurt
more than the artists themselves.

But music, like most 2016 media,
demands to be accessed by
consumers as conveniently and
cheaply as possible. People want
to hear your music and many
people are even willing to pay
money to do so. Let them do so
immediately through traditional
means or else they'll simply

grab it as a torrent for free.