The DSP thirst for exclusives from major artists has moved away from the album and towards content like videos, live performances and session singles. That could all now change.

It came hot on the heels of Justin Bieber giving Apple Music an exclusive on the video for the ‘E.T.A.’ track from his Changes album. According to Apple, it’s just “the first in a collection of brand new music videos from Changes that will launch exclusively on Apple Music over the coming weeks”.

These are, of course, enormous acts and can push the boundaries here – and no DSP is really going to blackball them because they offered a rival DSP some acoustic tracks or some videos. Even so, it all feels like a testing of the water about how far they can go without souring relations with another streaming platform.

And if this becomes the norm, will new acts – especially those the DSPs want to be seen to have had a hand in breaking – have to increasingly negotiate the combustible politics of exclusives?

If Coldplay and Bieber are firing the starting pistol on a new exclusive content arms race, it’s a gentle one. For now.