Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’ Illegally Downloaded Over 750,000 Times So Far

Frank Ocean's new album Blonde is finally out, and has been being taken in by the masses for a full week now. But not everyone have been able to get their hands on the project by legal means. The album was launched as an Apple Music exclusive, meaning the tech giant's streaming service is currently the only way to listen to the project. That's good for Apple but not good for Ocean's sales as the new album has been illegally downloaded over 750,000 times.

Blonde, which followed the release of the visual LP Endless, was released to much fanfare. But, according to Music Business Worldwide, as of Aug. 25, Ocean's album had been illegally downloaded 753,849 times.

The exclusivity situation has caused contention over at Universal Music Group who is now considering halting streaming exclusives that last for a week or more. “Our view is that giving exclusives to individual streaming platforms for long periods of time is not good for the artist, it’s not good for the fans, and it limits the commercial opportunity for everybody involved,” said a source from the label.

Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album suffered a similar fate upon its release back in February. After stating that the LP would only be available on Tidal, the album was pirated 500,000 times in the three days following its release.

Even with all the illegal downloading, Frank's album is expected to do numbers, as it is slated to moved between 225,000 and 250,000 units and come out in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200.

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