If more artists start to ‘window’ their album releases, withholding them from streaming services for weeks or months after they go on sale, it’s not good news for those services. Spotify’s Ken Parks has come out swinging against the idea in an interview with Fast Company. “From a user standpoint, it’s a pretty hostile proposition. The notion that you would want to withhold records from people who are paying 120 pounds or euros or dollars a year is just really mind-boggling. It’s pretty hostile to punish your best customers and fans. We think it’s a wrongheaded approach,” he says. “There’s certainly no data whatsoever to suggest that this increases unit sales. Windowing is not coming from record labels, which have every incentive to maximize the economic return on their investment for each individual record that they release.” He’s also asked if Adele would have sold 17m copies of her ’21’ album if it had been on Spotify. “We think it’s very possible she would’ve sold more.”
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…