BUNDLING UP FOR A TORONTO WINTER

Visitors to the iTunes Store hoping to cherry-pick choice cuts from Drake’s new Views are going to have to be patient—the album is bundled and will remain so for the first week. It’s the latest wrinkle in the strategic use of windowing. In the past, bundling has been employed to increase sales, but in this case the move is as much an artistic decision as a retail strategy in that it locks together the album as Drake intended it to be experienced.

Like Beyoncé’s Lemonade—which is not bundled but includes the HBO special—the $13.99 Views has been sequenced to form a coherent narrative, as Drake tells his story against the backdrop of Toronto's seasons, complete with atmospheric sound fx. It’s not a collection of “singles,” although there are multiple potential hits. Hence the bundle.

We’re in the midst of a period in which the superstar elite has seized the leverage and is making use of it.