Frank Ocean

Copyright 

On Oceans debut album ‘Channel Orange’ released on February, Ocean would write lyrics that complimented Malay’s keyboard and guitar playing, Malay is not only credited as a songwriter but also a producer. Ocean collaborated with Odd Future Collective for Channel Orange and Tyler the creator, Pharrell Williams and danger mouse for Blondie however he had creative freedom on both of his albums. Mo a Danish singer in collaboration with Major Lazer covered Frank Ocean’s song ‘lost’ from Channel Orange. 

Although no charges were pressed Frank Oceans newest album ‘Blondie’ was said to have been leaked onto goggle drive soon after it was made available to buy, however  universal did not press charges instead using scare tactics to shut the file down. Although Ocean has never released a statement about copyright he has been accused by musician Joel McDonald that alleged the Watch the Throne track "Made in America" by Jay Z and West and featuring Ocean had ripped off one of his songs however the court ruled that it was not a copyright violation and therefore ocean didn’t have to pay. 

Blonde Frank’s second album, was initially an Apple Music streaming exclusive when it was released on August 20. However, it later was released on Spotify on September 9th.However after a week the album had been removed from Spotify, with fans unable to play the record through Spotify. The album however was released again after Spotify explained that there was a small tech error.

Ownership 

Frank Ocean was originally signed to Def Jams which is under Universal however his new album Blondie was released on the artists own label called ‘Boys don’t cry’. The controversy over this album was that it was released under Franks own label ‘Boys don ’t cry’ which goes against his contract negotiations with ‘Def Jam’ (Which is under Universal studios) however Ocean got around his contract by releasing ‘Endless’ under their name, the company threatened to sue but found they had no legal ground considering Ocean paid back all the production fee’s. Boys dont cry is an independent label which mean that is owned by Frank Ocean and is relatively new meaning that no artist are yet signed with the label. The label has only released Oceans new album along with a zine, ocean is Known for his idiosyncratic musical style, however this is likely to change over time as Frank states he would like to work with a more experimental sound. His “Boys Don’t Cry” magazine credits David Bowie, Kanye West, Jamie xx, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, the Beatles, André 3000, Brian Eno, Pharrell, Elliott Smith only his Visual album Ocean credits Wolfgang tillmans, Jonny greenwood, Om’mas keith, James blake, Sampha, Jazmine sullivan, Arca, Christophe chassol, Buddy ross, Troy noka, Joe thornalley, Ben reed, Rita zebdi, Alex g, Sebastian, Michael uzowuru, Austin hollows. On Blondie Ocean credits Pharrell, Tyler the Creator, Lil B, Danger Mouse, Tame Impala, King Krule, Bit-Boy, Rodney Jerkins, Happy Perez, Charlie Gambetta, Kevin Ristro, Jay Z ( signed to universal showing convergence) , Kanye West (also signed to universal which shows synergy) , Martin Gore, Malay. The new album is only being distributed online and frank is yet to realise a physical copy of the album and is searching for a distribution deal. 

Promotion and Target audiences 

Ocean had a large growing fan base that built of his first album and due to his association with Tyler the Creator and Kanye West he has adopted their audience, Ocean mainly used tumblr and his website to promote his new album which is very below the line as the audience had to actively search for the music. He used very little above the line promotion such that he didn't used posters or appear on tv, his new album was very sort after and he built anticipation by giving very little information to the audience meaning that you had to actively search for very little information such as release dates, tracks and collaborations. Ocean used several different types of media during the release, through this he was able promote and build on the album.Such as during the album release he also set up several pop-up shops which sold both the album, the magazine and different merchandise.   A day before Ocean released his 45 minutes visual album which also shows examples of using two forms of media for both promotion and distribution, the album is available both online and physically showing different forms of distribution.

Some advantages of cross-media convergence in this case is that Ocean was able to promote his album across several forms of media, by selling merchandise he is able to both increase profit but also promote the album.  The audience also gets lots of access and extra material, therefore creating a buzz and more social media coverage. Some disadvantages to cross-media is that the message or product could become distorted, therefore the audience could get confused or misinterpret the product.