Jackson Mote is a junior
French major from Indianpolis.
CHRISTA SCHROEDEL / THE DEPAUW
Windowing is the practice of artists and record labels delaying new music releases to promote higher album sales. Coldplay, the Black Keys and Adele are some example of popular artists that use this revenue boosting technique.
Recently, Taylor Swift pulled all of her albums from Spotify. The music service now shows users the following message when searching for Taylor Swift music: “The artist or their representatives have decided not to release this album on Spotify. We are working on it and hope they will change their mind soon.” While Spotify recognizes the disappointment of their users, they are passing the blame to the artist and record label using the aforementioned statement.
The concept of windowing is demonstrated by Swift’s decision to not add her newest album “1989” to the music streaming service of over 40 million users.
The delay or absence of new releases on Netflix until after they have been released on DVD can be compared to the phenomenon presented.
I understand the intention of using windowing to boost album sales and the fact that it does work. However, denying your fans new music for several months is a disservice that is not worth an increase in album sales.
Fans want to hear new music from their favorite artists. Due to artists forcing fans to purchase their albums rather than use Spotify, the overall reach of these albums will diminish. I believe that fans will move towards finding newer artists, who release their music for a lesser cost or even no cost at all.
If artists and record labels continue to shut out massive groups of fans from listening to their music, they will no longer be able to sustain the practice of windowing.
I suggest that you refrain from purchasing albums that have been released by a record label that endorses windowing. Choose artists that care more about the sound of their music, their fans and the effect of their music on the people around them than their revenue sales.
It’s sad to see that many artists have given in to the will of their record label(s). Independent artists are free to pursue their own creativity through music, without the influence of a corporate board paying their salary.