The battle for exclusive streaming rights for music content is raging, especially between Apple Music and Tidal services. Universal Music Group, however it seems that does not agree with the exclusive release of the new albums produced by the company. As reported by the head of the Universal Music company, Lucian Grainge, to all executives, from this moment on, there will no longer be any type of exclusivity agreements with any streaming music platform, referring to the launch exclusive to Frank Ocean's new album on Apple Music a few days ago.
Frank released his album "Channel Orange" and his visual album "Endless" under Def Jam Records, one of the many record companies that are under the umbrella of Universal Music. According to this information the album "Endless" fulfilled Frank's agreement with Def Jam so the release of his latest album "Blond" exclusively with Apple Music is an independent release.
Although Universal Music could put all the legal machinery in place to void this exclusivity agreement, it is unlikely to do so as it had already fulfilled its two-disc deal with Def Jam. By independently offering the latest album "Blond" Frank will receive 70% of the total revenue, a figure far removed from the 17% that you would receive if it had been published through the Def Jam label. Universal and Def Jam saw how the visual album "Endless", which was not intended for sale, fulfilled the contract signed by both with Frank.
Although nothing is confirmed, it is highly unlikely that the release of "Blond" independently and exclusively for Apple Music hinder Universal Music's relationship with music streaming services. The idea of reaching exclusive agreements with this type of music service has always been criticized in the past, but even so, record companies have continued to reach agreements with them.
Apple Music has secured a large number of exclusives in recent years including Drake, Kate Perry, Taylor Swift ... Britney Spears is expected to release her new album Glory soon via Apple's streaming music service. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the major labels follow in the footsteps of Universal Music, moving away from this type of exclusives. These types of offers are the incentive that both Apple Music and Spotify offer to gain influence over each other.