Frank Ocean’s Blonde is poised to take the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart. Ocean also recently put out the Apple Music exclusive visual album Endless. The 45-minute visual features new songs and reportedly fulfilled Ocean’s contractual obligation to Def Jam before he self-released Blonde. According to Billboard, Endless is not eligible to chart. Because it’s not available for sale and none of its songs are offered individually, Endless won’t surface on either the Billboard 200 or the Music Video Sales Chart.
Billboard notes that there isn’t currently an industry standard for the “album-equivalent ratio” for streaming an entire visual album. It’s noted that this year’s other major visual album, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, charted on the strength of its accompanying album (which had a traditional physical and streaming release). “As the concept of the album continues to evolve, Billboard and Nielsen Music, in consultation with the industry, will continue to consider evolving chart policies to accommodate for the consumption of forward-thinking projects like Endless,” Billboard noted in a statement.
Following Endless, Blonde, and Frank Ocean’s departure from Def Jam, Universal Music Group have reportedly decided that they will no longer offer streaming exclusives.
Watch Endless here. Read Pitchfork’s interviews with SebastiAn, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Tom Sachs about their contributions to Endless and Blonde.
via Evan Minsker
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