There aren’t too many rappers that could afford to skip out on big payouts and still live a cozy life. Apparently, Jay-Z is missing out on an milli a week by not making 4:44 available on Spotify.
According to industry insiders sourced by Billboard Magazine, the RocNation CEO’s snub of the world’s leading streaming service is currently costing him an estimated hundred thousands of dollars a week and even up to a million for the first three weeks following the release.
Earlier this year Jay removed all his music from Spotify. The move is widely believed to be an objection to their free ad-supported service which devalues the art and limits artist earning potential.
“He would choose to frame this as potentially saying all music should be paid for and positioning his release against Spotify’s free tier,” explained MIDiA Research analyst Zach Fuller. “Whether or not that argument stands up depends on who you speak to. You can commend Spotify for engendering this audience that previously would be downloading the music illegally.”
The album release strategy was very calculated indeed with Sprint customers receiving an exclusive first listen at 4:44 which was followed by Tidal subscribers and most recently a broader roll out that included Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Google Play.
MIDiA Research estimates that Spotify maintains about 140 million active users making them the industry leader. Tidal has accumulated about 4 million thus far; seeing a noticeable bump in subscription during the album’s first week of release according to David Bakula, a senior vice president of analytics at Nielsen.
Considering the overwhelming praise Hov’s most confessional effort has received thus far Spotify has to be feeling some sort of way. This only leaves us to wonder if Kanye will only release his new album there to spite his former mentor.
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