Apple Reportedly Pressuring Music Labels For Exclusive Releases

Beyonce is an artist that holds some serious star power. Back in 2013, the singer decided to test the limits of her popularity when she released her new album without any fanfare or announcements. Safe to say at that time, that was pretty much all anyone could talk about on social media.

This kind of breaks tradition where artists usually drops hints, or keeps reminding their fans that their album is about to be released. Turns out Beyonce did not have anything to worry about as the album broke the iTunes record where it was released as an exclusive, and now Apple wants to recreate that effect with other artists as well.

According to a report from Billboard, Apple’s VP of the iTunes Store, Robert Kondrk, had been pressuring label executives every since January to follow in the steps of Beyonce and release more albums that would exclusive to iTunes.

Why would labels do that, you ask? Well given the size and reach of iTunes, it managed to allow the album to gain platinum status in a week and turned out to be the fastest selling album in iTunes history, especially given that the exclusivity was only for a week.

Kondrk also reportedly does not want the songs to be available on streaming services, a little ironic considering Apple’s iTunes Radio. As it stands only two songs from Beyonce’s album is available on Spotify.

While the exclusivity is a great idea for iTunes, not everyone has the same star power or reach that Beyonce has. Bands or singers who aren’t as well known would actually do better if they were more accessible, rather than confined to one particular distribution channel, but what do you guys think? Should labels start doing more exclusive releases?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Audio, Rumors
Tags: iTunes