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.

The new EP from Coldplay suggests a testing of the water as to what an act will give a DSP on an exclusive basis without flipping into full album territory. It’s called Coldplay Reimagined and features not only three acoustic versions of tracks from their recent Everyday Life album – ‘Cry Cry Cry’, ‘BrokEn’ and ‘Champion Of The World’ – but also a companion short film that features Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland from the band working on the recordings.

The video is only nine minutes long but comes up on the listing page as “© 2020 Apple Music” rather than, for example, “© 2020 Coldplay” or “© 2020 Parlophone”, which is somewhat revealing about what the negotiations for this exclusive might have involved.

While it’s obviously not a new album or even new music – just three existing songs unplugged and a video about them – it is still interesting from the perspective of just how much material acts are comfortable giving streaming services on an exclusive basis without it souring their relationship with other DSPs.