Initially billed as an exclusive to Tidal, Beyonce’s new Lemonade album is now available to buy on iTunes. Jay-Z’s streaming music service had been touting itself as an exclusive location to listen to Beyonce’s latest album. While Tidal maintains exclusive streaming rights, the album is now being freely sold for download elsewhere.
Tidal has attempted similar stunts in the past, with Kanye West famously stating his album ‘The Life of Pablo’ would never be on Apple Music and would be exclusive to Tidal. However, a track from the album soon showed up on Apple’s services a few weeks later. There is currently a class action lawsuit forming around the false claims of exclusivity.
The Lemonade album features 12 tracks and an accompanying hour long ‘visual album’ video. It was thought to have the potential to break streaming records, as a high profile artist was never promising exclusivity to a streaming platform in such a manner before.
However, the proliferation of the album onto other outlets like iTunes means historical streaming records aren’t likely to be met.
That being said, Beyonce has not given complete control of the album away from Tidal. The service will continue to be the only place to stream Lemonade, at least until someone changes their mind …
Exclusives are becoming a big part of the streaming music service wars. Apple has promoted exclusives heavily on its service to attract customers, including content like the Taylor Swift World Tour video.
Tidal is thought to have around 3 million subscribers. Apple’s streaming competitor, Apple Music, last announced it has 11 million paying subscribers. Spotify continues to lead in the space with 30 million subscribers, although Apple Music’s adoption rates are suggesting it will catch up eventually.
Lemonade is available now on iTunes for $17.99.
