Frank Ocean album worth the wait as it hits number one

That’s not to mention the entirely separate “visual album”, entitled Endless, that he put out the day before.

We saw it with the apparently unprecedented pirating stats for Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo, which was downloaded illegally some 500,000 times in its first week, and now Frank Ocean’s Blond/Blonde has eclipsed that number.

Universal Music has reportedly declared the end of albums released exclusively on a single music streaming service, after an unexpected double release from artist Frank Ocean last week left it potentially out of pocket.

Endless fulfilled Ocean’s contractual agreement with Def Jam, which is owned by Universal Music Group, and Blond was released on his own independent label, Boys Don’t Cry.

Since launching Apple Music last summer, Apple Inc. has shelled out some of its massive cash reserves to the music industry’s biggest and brightest stars, landing exclusive album releases on the streaming service. Not just those with Apple Music have been able to acquire Blonde.

It is for this reason that UMG has since banned any of its artists from concluding any streaming-exclusive deals in the future. You don’t have to sign-up for any Apple Music free trial subscription, nor do you have to pay afterwards, and you can listen to the album all you want. Over the past year, major albums by stars such as Beyonce and Drake were released first through exclusive streaming deals of various kinds.

While Universal Music Group may have the grounds to pursue legal action, Billboard reports that no legal action is now being considered against Ocean.

It says a lot about Frank Ocean that he calls on Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar for his second studio album – and sort of throws them away on backing vocals. Generally, an artist isn’t allowed to release new music with another label until an acceptable amount of time has passed.