Why Frank Ocean’s ‘Endless’ Album Won’t Chart on Billboard
It's been more than a week since R&B's illusive crooner Frank Ocean dropped not one but two albums. Endless, a 45-minute stream featuring new music from the NOLA-bred singer, was released on Aug. 18 exclusively through Apple Music and Blonde, the more-or-less official follow up to Frank's 2012 debut album channel ORANGE, was released on Apple Music two days later (Aug. 20). And while Blonde has officially claimed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts with 276,000 units sold, Endless is unfortunately not in the chart's running at all. Here's why.
Endless in its current form is a full-length 45-minute film. This means fans have to stream the video in its entirety to consume the music and can't purchase individual songs off the project. So, while you can definitely fast forward to Frank's dope cover of Aaliyah's "At Your Best" if you want to, you can't stream or purchase it separately. Because Frank chose to drop Endless as one uninterrupted visual, the release isn't currently eligible to chart.
Endless and Blonde were four years in the making for the Odd Future cohort. And while Endless was courtesy of Def Jam, Blonde was dropped under Boys Don't Cry, meaning it was solely Frank's independent release. And as Pitchfork reports, Frank fulfilled his contractual obligations to Def Jam and Universal by dropping Endless. That means Def Jam is making next to nothing off of Blonde. On top of that, if Frank is a full-fledged independent artist now, this means he secured an Apple Music deal without even needing a major label to back him, much like Chance The Rapper did with Coloring Book. We're pretty sure Frank is somewhere under a palm tree basking in the glory of it all and saying, "Got 'em."
Check out how much fans freaked out when Frank dropped his new music in the gallery below.
Fans React to Frank Ocean’s ‘Blond’ Album