Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’ Is Now Streaming On Spotify, But They’re Doing Their Best To Bury It
Apple Music's 2 week exclusive is over and Frank Ocean's #1 album "Blonde" is now streaming on Spotify. But despite claims that it does not retaliate when artists give their competitors an exclusive, you won't find the album in many of the places that Spotify usually uses to showcase new releases.
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2 weeks after an Apple Music exclusive release, Frank Ocean's #1 album "Endless" is now streaming on Spotify. But you're going to have to go looking for it.
Not only has Spotify failed to featured Frank Ocean on its front page, as it normally would a release of this magnitude; but I couldn't find "Endless" in any of the places that Spotify created to showcase major releases and new music:
"Blonde" is not amoung the dozens of albums in Spotify's New Releases section under the Browse tab- Ocean is nowhere to be found on Spotify's current New Release Friday playlist, which has 1.5 million followers.
- Despite being #1 elsewhere, "Endless" somehow failed to chart on any of Spotify's charts
- Even the artwork leading to Ocean's Spotify artist page is for another album, "channel Orange."
All of this despite claims from Spotify that it does not punish artists that window their releases or give Apple Music an exclusive.
Ocean's visual album "Endless," which was released just days prior to "Blonde," is still only available to watch on Apple Music.
More: Is Spotify Punishing Apple Artists?
All of that is actually part of Spotify’s official policy. They can claim it’s not a punishment but it’s right there in their policy for everyone to see
Is it really new (week by week, not by looser meaning) if it was windowed though? I think Spotify does these lists weekly, so it just makes sense to me.
Spotify probably also relies heavily, of not completely, on their own streaming for their charts. Makes sense, and gives more variety, which is good.