The rapper yet again sets an example of how an album can be released in a new way.
With the full roll-out of JAY-Z’s new 4:44 album unfolding over the last week, the new release now appears to be available on most major streaming platforms—including Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal (of course) —along with one rather conspicuous exception: Spotify.
The new album has yet to appear on the music streaming market leader’s platform (with 140 million active users) as of tonight (7/6) at 9:00 p.m. PST when the album appeared on other services.JAY-Z’s move to hold his album from Spotify isn’t exactly a surpise. In April, he removed his entire catalog from the service without explaining why. Some theorized at the time it was because the streaming service’s ad-based freemium tier paid less than subscriber-only services—which may have been what spurred him to launch his own music streaming service with Tidal in March of 2015. The move may also have been a way to drive his fans to his own platform ahead of Tidal’s week-long exclusive launch of 4:44.
In the past, other acts from Taylor Swift to Adele have withheld albums from Spotify because of its longstanding practice of making all its music available to both its free users and paying subscribers.
But with Universal Music’s latest negotiations with Spotify this past April, the world’s largest music company…
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