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Singer may get sued by former label Def Jam

The grounds on which the singer may get sued involves breaching a possible contract that disallows him from releasing music on another label for a certain period after leaving the previous label.

Frank Ocean

This follows a  company-wide email by the Chairman and CEO  Lucian Grainage, informing of the discontinuation of exclusive releases of artists' music to streaming services owing to the intense competition observed between the streaming sites such as Apple Music and Tidal.

It however remains to be confirmed if the CEO's action is connected with the exclusive release of "Blonde" on Apple Music.

Online pop-culture website, The Fader reported on Tuesday, August 23, 2016, that Frank Ocean ended his contract with Def Jam/Universal Music with the   release of the visual  album " Endless" exclusively to streaming service Apple Music, which marked Universal's last streaming release exclusive.

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Fader also reported on same Tuesday August 23, 2016  that Frank Ocean released the "Blonde" album under his purported independent label Boys Don't Cry.

While full credits for "Blonde" have not been released yet, iTunes and Apple Music both attribute the album's copyright to Boys Don't Cry, which is possibly Frank's newly formed independent entity or maybe just a placeholder.

The grounds on which Def Jam/Universal Music may also sue is if a minimum-delivery contract clause required Frank to deliver both albums within a set time frame and according to a label-determined quality. Many recording contracts also specify a window of time during which artists cannot release music on another label.

The singer's "Blonde" is being projected to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 with an estimated sale of 250,000 to 300,000 equivalent album units.

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