The Life of Pablo, the Death of Streaming Music as We Know it
The release of Kanye West’s new album was a monumental event, but not because of the fashion show, the Twitter controversy or the insane level of anticipation. The Life of Pablo has hastened the death of the first golden era of music streaming.
The music streaming landscape is now effectively segmented to the point where, as a consumer, it’s inconvenient to have just one streaming service. Having to pay for more than one streaming service is of course par for the course in video — long gone are the days where it makes any sense to make do with just Netflix.
Likewise, gone are the day where you can fire up Spotify and play basically any song. Spotify has no Taylor Swift albums and only a handful of songs from various soundtracks she’s done. Some of the Taylor Swift albums are on Tidal, but not 1989. All of her albums are available on Apple Music. Prince’s new single (but almost nothing else) is available on Spotify, all of his music is available on Tidal, and a random smattering of his songs are available on Apple Music.
Source: Motherboard
[Ed. Spotify has Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, and Loretta Lynn. My Spotify is just fine, thank you, without T. Swift.]