What does Drake’s partnership with Apple mean for the future of music?

Drake, arguably music’s most popular former child star, was invited to speak at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference last month. He talked about the Internet and iTunes’ integral role in his meteoric rise to superstardom, and how Apple Music, the company’s newest venture into subscription-based music streaming, could afford other artists the same kind of opportunities. Uncharacteristically nervous, Drake stumbled his way through the speech and passed off to Eddy Cue, who went on to dance uncomfortably onstage to Cuban music. Perhaps those nerves weren’t completely because of the conference being broadcast around the world, but because Drake doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into with Apple Music.

Let me explain: During Drake’s segment at the show, he brought up the interesting possibilities of Apple Music’s Connect feature. The new feature acts almost like a social platform within Apple music, where artist can share photos, ideas, demos, and new music directly to their fans. “This...simplifies everything for the modern musician like myself” says Drake, tense, during his final statements “and the modern music consumer like you.” This actually complicates everything.

You see, Drake is going to release his new album exclusively through Apple Music, continuing the trend of exclusivity deals between major label artists and music streaming services. The first time platform-exclusive content rights in the music industry were used this aggressively was when Jay-Z removed his first album from all streaming services except Tidal. That, at the time, seemed a desperation move because of an underwhelming launch event and low first month subscriber numbers. Drake’s deal with Apple means that Jay-Z’s move wasn’t an isolated incident. Since Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj’s Feeling Myself video and Lil Wayne’s Free Weezy Album are Tidal exclusives, and Apple Music is the only place consumers can stream Taylor Swift’s 1989.

Music streaming services are going down the slippery slope that has plagued the video game industry for years. Major console manufacturers like Microsoft and Sony poach successful game studios so That Game You Love can only be played on their hardware, at least for a time. Every year there is a war between the two aforementioned companies for who will have the new Call of Duty DLC first, and for how long. These practices do drive sales, but in unhealthy ways. Less people end up even seeing the content they want, because it is unavailable for them during the time they’re interested in it. The Feeling Myself video is still not up on YouTube, even after a month. That’s a lot of eyeballs that are lost once it quietly gets uploaded sometime in the future.

The business practices of Apple Music and Tidal may force the hand of Spotify and smaller services like Rdio to do the same, and it will probably segment the music industry and it’s fans in a way that makes the consumer ultimately lose. Nobody wants to have a Spotify subscription for Taylor Swift and an Apple Music subscription for Drake. It’s going to force consumers to choose sides. As more and more artists continue to make exclusivity deals, the more and more complicated it will become to simply enjoy your favorite songs, no matter what Drake says.