The system of exclusives in steaming music services has become common, although many record labels do not like that their protégés negotiate on their own. A few days ago the exclusive Apple had ended with the entire discography of Taylor Swift on Apple Music and now it is Jay Z who has just announced that his new album 4:44 will be released exclusively for the streaming music service Sprint-Tidal. This exclusive formula is very useful for large music services such as Spotify or Apple Music, however for music services such as Tidal, which according to the latest figures, it has just over 3 million subscribers it is a serious problem for the income that the group or singer in question can obtain.
The latest example of how counterproductive it can be to launch an exclusive album on Tidal is seen with the last album that Beyoncé released, an album that has passed without pain or glory through the music charts since it was released. However, if Beyoncé's latest album had gone directly to being available on Apple Music with 27 million subscribers or on Spotify with more than 50 million paying users, lThe impact of it would have been much greater, but considering that Jay Z is Beyoncé's husband as well as being one of the owners of Tidal, along with Sprint and other artists, it is a logical decision, even if it goes against their interests.
Last january the American telephone operator Sprint, acquired 33% of the streaming music service led by the main artists who have always objected to their music being available in this type of service due to the low income it generates. What they have not taken into account is that this way of consuming music has proven to be the best option so that music piracy has managed to reduce considerably.