So the concept of album windowing (releasing an album on a specific platform while withholding it from others) has become a more frequent business strategy in the past year. Rolling Stone interviewed Sony Entertainment Chief, Michael Lynton, who said album windowing is the future of streaming:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-album-windows-the-future-of-streaming-sony-chief-says-20160219 Michael Lynton
What I'm trying to grasp is why artists and especially record labels are agreeing to such deals. By 'windowing' you are instantly restricted to that platforms user base upon release (when hype for the album is at its peak). You are limiting your revenue streams this way in the world of streaming, which has been scrutinised for its low overall pay-out as it is. Why make a bad situation worse?
My only point of reason is that these promotional deals are only really of benefit to the streaming platform themselves and they are paying out huge fees in order to gain this exclusivity. It gets to boast exclusive content over its competitor and draw in numbers that way. Makes sense. But with nobody coming forward as to how much these deals pay out and who initiates the negotiation (at least from my research*), it's hard to gauge what's in it for the recording label and their artist.
Thoughts?
*If you find any data on this please do link it
