Not a good idea.

Some artists rely on physical sales still. iTunes is just being greedy in this case tbh.

I like the idea of "album only" for the first week but that's about it. This release style will run it's course eventually.

Queen

I didn't post this part due to ATRL's new rules but they're now against giving it physical retailers first week.

King

That's interesting.

I was wondering why more streaming services haven't tried to stream albums exclusively for the week prior to their release, but it seems like iTunes snatched that option up from them before they could really benefit from it and now they are trying to make sure they can't.

Does anyone know if Spotify or Pandora have streamed albums exclusively prior to their release? I think Pandora recently streamed Ashanti's new album, but there haven't been any big names have there?

Physical sales can follow the week after. These are first week digital exclusive deals - from a business perspective it's genius.

The platform (iTunes, Amazon, etc) get the exclusive deal where the fans can only buy the album from them. And the artist avoids a leak due to a digital only release. I can see this being the new normal from now on.


Simple. Streaming services haven't found a way to turn 'streams' into a large amount of revenue yet. Obviously, the record label and the artist would rather have people buy than stream.

I guess this is their answer to the streaming problem.

pulling a Beyonce is a surprise release, not an iTunes exclusive.

I remember RED not being available to stream on Spotify or Youtube the first weeks either
Streaming obviously hurts sales

Really? Because downloads are at an all time low and Streaming is ******** on lives? OK Robert. OK.

Ah, alright. Then this would be fine.

Streaming services shouldn't have it it's first week though, I completely agree with that. Part of 21's sales success came from the fact it wasn't available on Spotify for the longest time.

Album releases should be treated like movie releases when it comes to streaming. Not available to stream until after a certain amount of time has passed.

It'll heavily weaken the effect of iTunes-exclusive deals if more come, especially in droves.

I thought about that too. It makes a whole lot of sense and I'd pick iTunes over Spotify/Pandora to preview my album any day.

The only thing I agree with is to only make the single available for download. If you want to hear the rest, then buy the album. Buying individual album tracks is stupid.

Her impact.