Jason Aldean witholding album from streaming services for a month
Country star Jason Aldean is only making his new album available on streaming services a month after its official release.
The Burnin' It Down singer previously pulled his chart-topping 2014 record, Old Boots, New Dirt, from music streaming service Spotify in a gesture of solidarity for unfairly compensated music producers, writers and engineers.
Now with his seventh studio album They Don't Know, out on 9 September (16), he's meeting fans in the middle by only allowing the record to be available on streaming services such as Spotify a month after it becomes available for purchase.
"A new album is just like anything else," Aldean tells Billboard about his decision. "When the new iPhone comes out, when you go to the Apple store, they’re not just handing them out for free. If you want something that’s brand new, you’re willing to pay the price for it. And then, after it’s been out for a while, you may get it at a discount. That’s just business 101."
Months after the star pulled his music from Spotify, he was revealed as one of the celebrity stakeholders of Jay Z's Tidal music service, which promised fair artist compensation and higher royalty rates.
Aldean eventually put Old Boots, New Dirt back on Spotify last November (15), and he added to Billboard that the reasons behind his decision to pull the tracks were lost in translation.
"The last time around, I tried to do the right thing and it backfired and made me look like the bad guy; that was never my intention at all," he says of taking Old Boots off Spotify. "This isn’t about me making more money. It’s about the younger artists coming up and having a legitimate shot at having a career in this business, a long career.
"I’ve been made to look like I was greedy for wanting to stand up for not only myself but for an entire genre of music and an entire town - Nashville. It’s about the writers, publishers, producers, everybody is getting the short end of the stick on this deal. I have a lot of friends in this town who make their living writing."
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