The climate of music acquisition is polymorphous, with many “short ends of the stick.” Sometimes it’s on the end of the listener, who can’t hear the music without paying for some sort of streaming service or the iTunes album, or it’s the label and the artist, who end up having to squander for money because their music is being shopped but not bought.
The more popular the album, the more at risk it is for being obtained in superficial ways. The Life of Pablo broke grounds as being one of the most torrented albums in recent history. The report goes on to deal in numbers; the album was apparently downloaded 500,000 times in the first 24 hours, with the only other way to retrieve it being via Tidal subscription.
Less than a week of Frank Ocean‘s blond being out for sale, via Apple Music, and the album has already gone on record as being illegally downloaded over 750,000 times.
Glaring slightly past the very straightforward allure of the album- a challenge of normative sexuality and speaking on the discrimination and issues of those who identify as something other than what’s “correct”- Frank Ocean actually attacks the music industry, having released Endless as his last fulfillment of his contract with Universal Music Group, then releasing blond independently; a clear commentary on the standalone artist of contemporary times.
Many argue that independent releases and streaming services have created a new, warlike environment within the music world, both on the business and listening side. The increasing exclusivity of music has made the illegal acquisition of music be held on a pedestal, and held there under the guise of necessity- people view illegal downloading as the only alternative.
We’ll see how blond performs on both the Billboard charts and the torrent charts in the coming days.
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