The Life of Pablo: MVP
Last week Kanye revealed that he had made further updates to his most recent album, The Life of Pablo. Nothing too dramatic as of yet, but tweaks to the lyrics, production, and track arrangements. Only a short while previously he had also announced that his audience would no longer see any physical releases of his upcoming music, stating that “The Yeezus album packaging was an open casket to CDs R.I.P”. True to this, TLOP was released exclusively on Tidal — a music streaming service which sells itself on its lossless audio streaming capabilities. This post covers some points I’ve drawn from this release:
This wouldn’t have been possible had Kanye had released via many other platforms
The nature of streaming services dictates that consumers don’t own their music. They have on-demand access to it, but don’t have control over the files (comparing owning files to streaming them is starting to feel very much like comparing owning CDs to MP3s did several years back). It’s in the name, the tracks are streamed and in some cases can be made available offline but are always kept within their parent platform. Having this kind of control over what customers have access to equipped Kanye to release TLOP in the way he did. Imagine you’d picked up a physical copy of his latest work from your local record store only to find that there was a new ‘updated’ version to take its place a few weeks down the line. Aside from the subculture of collectors who’d be excited at the idea of owning something out of circulation, I’m assuming that the majority of customers would be frustrated. This is understandable. The platforms traditionally used to distribute music have shaped our attitude towards what the context of music and what it even is. By restricting the release of TLOP to a single streaming service, Kanye has paved the way for this new idea of music being something that grows and develops over time. Every listener will be in the same boat in that they are paying a subscription fee and in return gaining access to a collection of high quality, always-up-to-date music. Something that previously wouldn’t have necessarily been a consideration. This will also make things trickier for those who pirate their music — no great shame here.
This highlights a clear parallel between music and digital products
When I heard about what had been going on with TLOP, my mind wandered to drawing parallels between Kanye’s release model to that of digital products. Little over a decade ago the model of software distribution was vastly different to what it is today. There was little by way of centralised hubs to browse and manage applications. Of course, the ability to update applications existed but the process was far less streamlined than it is now. A dramatic advantage of designing and building digital products today is the ability to release a minimum viable product (MVP) with core functionality, then to use real user insights to refine and improve the product — a logical way to create the best possible experience for the user. This is made achievable thanks to app-store platforms which support automatic updates. In our industry it’s generally accepted that software is never ‘complete’ and users are largely happy about this. It means we can deliver updates and add features that will add value to the experience and remove things that don’t. Things get interesting when we apply this logic to music.
So far I’ve been drawing parallels between products and music, but it’s important to draw a distinction between the two. Generally speaking, one is designed to solve problems while the other is considered an art form. Yes, there are exceptions (for example mobile games can be considered art and music can be considered functional) but they are undoubtedly different things. This is where I understand there to be a juxtaposition in the ‘MVP model’; given that products are often updated to improve the users’ experience, what would be the purpose of updating music? What Kanye has been doing with TLOP is arguably for himself; he is trying to satisfy his creative vision. Does this mean the update is for him or us? I think the answer is both. Ultimately music has the ability to be both for its creator and for its audience. He is an artist empowering himself to continue working on his art on a public platform. It’s an interesting way to look at things and begins to pose many new questions; for example, when does one album ‘end’ and another begin?
Music is where video games were 10 years ago
Before 7th generation games consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) it wasn’t so commonplace for consoles to be connected to the internet. This meant that when you bought a physical PS2 game, that was it. You wouldn’t expect, nor want an updated version to be released since it would mean purchasing another physical piece of media. This is not to say that publishers weren’t exploring this route, EA released several expansion packs for The Sims 2 on both PC and OS X but not on consoles. This was due to the hardware restrictions. Now looking at 7th generation consoles, it becomes clear why game updates have become so widespread. They’re becoming near invisible to users. Publishers are able to push updates through and improve or add things with minimal action on the user’s part. It means that games can be created with content intentionally missing so the developers are able to add it at a later date having understood what users want (optimistic angle). This is a powerful example of how restrictions are informing design. I remember a conversation I had with a (music) producer a few years back in which he was describing to me his frustration in how lots of musicians were asking for heavy bass to be incorporated into the mix to overcompensate for the lack of bass on smartphone speakers. A vivid illustration of how the current market and available platform has been shaping music. Looking at how music is distributed, it’s fair to say that it may be reaching the point that game distribution was by the eve of 7th generation consoles. If these distribution platforms have been dictating how music has been produced and delivered then how will things look when these constraints are removed? I think Kanye may have an idea of what the answer to that is.
Personally, I’m fascinated to see how this pans out over the next few years. If this is the start of a reform of music distribution similar to the jump from 7th to 8th generation consoles or the advent of app stores, then Kanye has taken an incredibly bold step in renouncing physical media and adopting streaming. Only time will tell if this is the dawn of the next generation of music distribution. It’s early days still if this will become the norm, but I think things will become clearer in the near future. After all Kanye himself has told us that “Life of Pablo is a living breathing changing creative expression.”
*EDIT*
Looks like it’s not meant to be just yet, The Life of Pablo is now available to buy digitally. Either way, the first steps have been made, let’s see what happens.
