[benashford]

I'm no expert on the streaming industry either, but I'd guess it's because Spotify has much larger numbers of casual listeners (the free tier), which provides a long-tail for popular songs that aren't new enough for "exclusives".

So it's essentially Spotify's way of saying "if you don't want our customers to listen to the album when it's new, don't rely on us for listeners when it's old".

Although these claims are going to be essentially impossible to prove. Who's to say what should or shouldn't be in a playlist, for example?