FRANK OCEAN'S BLONDE HITS SPOTIFY

After a two-week exclusive with Apple Music and netting the third-biggest sales debut of this year, Frank Ocean's hit album Blonde (Boys Don't Cry) began streaming on Spotify Friday.

The release was famously part of Apple Music's prolific string of high-profile exclusives, their fourth this year, which started with Drake's VIEWS, followed by Chance The Rapper's Coloring Book, Ocean's Blonde (which was exclusive since 8/20) and currently, Travis Scott's Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight.

Although these exclusives have been a point of contention for the biz, it doesn't appear to have hurt consumer conversion at all, for either service. Spotify recently announced they've added 9m for a total of 39m subscribers, and Apple just revealed during their September Keynote that subscribers have risen by 4m since late April— a period that has included its exclusives for Views and Blonde—for a new total of 17m.

Perhaps all the media attention around these particular music releases acts as a marketing mechanism in its own right, for the value prospect of streaming overall. A rising tide might actually lift all boats.