Is Universal Music About To Ban Exclusive Streaming?

Is the practice of exclusive streaming on Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify coming to an end?

According to Bob Lefsetz (via HighSnobiety), who runs an influential music business newsletter, Lucian Grainge, who is CEO of Universal Music Group (UMG), sent an email to all company employees recently – in the wake of popular musician Frank Ocean’s Apple Music exclusive for his latest release Blonde –  saying UMG is banning the practice of exclusive streaming.

Blonde at the moment is an Apple Music exclusive together with the visual album Endless; the former being self-released by Ocean while the latter was supposed fulfil his contractual obligation to Def Jam and Universal.

If true, the move can be seen as an attempt to head of the continued fragmentation of the music streaming world and also to bolster the power of the longer established content producers worried about the growing power of the streaming ‘brands’.

Fragmentation can also be frustrating for consumers as their favourite artists may not be available across all platforms, meaning they need to subscribe to several services to get a truly universal (no pun intended) service.

Universal is parent company to nearly 80 record labels including Interscope, Capitol and Def Jam, Kanye West’s GOOD Music, Cash Money, Dr. Dre’s Aftermath, Eminem’s Shady and J. Cole’s Dreamville.

For a bit of prespective, all five of this year’s album of the year Grammy nominees: Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Chris Stapleton and Alabama Shakes, would have been affected if Universal had a ban in place.