Who was the first musician to release an album exclusively on a streaming platform?
Introducing a new music format is usually a momentous occasion within the music industry. After all, formats can change the way in which music is consumed en masse. For decades, the landscape was dominated by physical formats, with wax cylinders giving way to phonographic vinyl records before being overtaken by the eight-track, compact cassette, and, eventually, CD. However, the rise of streaming and the digital age changed the field of music and its format indefinitely.
From the very early days of the internet, music sharing was a key part of its appeal. The ability to share songs or entire albums with the click of a button revolutionised the world of music production and sharing. All of a sudden, artists could release music without spending thousands on vinyl and CD production or distribution. As such, numerous artists across the world began to gain traction through self-released music, which they might never have been able to do without the help of the Internet.
In 1991, Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner’ became the first MP3 file developed by German engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg. In the following decades, MP3 files became the most widespread and abundant music format, overtaking CDs by the mid-2000s. Developments like Apple’s iPod only increased the prevalence of the format, and soon, artists were releasing music solely via MP3 files online.
Both new and established artists embraced the age of MP3. Iconic figures like Prince, David Bowie, and Massive Attack started to release MP3 albums by the late 1990s, and now-legendary groups like Arctic Monkeys owed a lot of their early success to sharing MP3 files on online forums and social media sites like MySpace. Of course, the music industry saw the advancement of MP3 as a threat, as it increased the ease of music piracy, which had also been a worry when the compact cassette started to take off in the mid-1970s.
If MP3 threatened the sanctity of the established music industry, then the advent of music streaming completely demolished the industry. Proto-streaming services sprang up during the MP3 age, with piracy sites leading the charge, but the launch of Spotify in 2008 created a legal alternative to downloading music that made things easier for music consumers, while keeping the industry executives relatively happy, too.
Now, music streaming is the predominant method most people use to consume music, with companies like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal dominating the market. While artists rightly criticise streaming for the comparative lack of royalty payments in opposition to downloads or physical media sales, its user-friendly experience means that music streaming is difficult to escape from in the modern age.
So, what was the first album to be released exclusively for streaming?
Although Spotify was among the first music streaming platforms to establish itself on the market, it was Tidal who released the first major streaming exclusive back in 2016. A year prior, the Norwegian-Swedish business had been purchased by Jay-Z’s Project Panther Bidco Ltd. In order to boost the number of subscribers to the service, Jay-Z and Kanye West (now operating under the name Ye) chose to release Ye’s latest record, The Life of Pablo, exclusively through Tidal.
So, on February 14th, 2016, The Life of Pablo became available exclusively to Tidal subscribers and was later released on Spotify and Apple Music, making it a streaming-only album. Although the project was later bootlegged onto CDs and vinyl records, it has largely remained a streaming-only release, with Ye claiming he “was thinking about not making CDs ever again” upon the album’s release.
Although The Life of Pablo was released nearly a decade ago, music streaming platforms still reign supreme over the musical landscape. It is not uncommon for artists to release their material exclusively to streaming platforms, particularly given the rising costs of producing physical formats like vinyl records. Like it or loathe it, music streaming appears to be here to stay.
