[smugma]

Music streaming could have gone the fragmented route. The major services were doing all sorts of exclusives. Two things stopped it (the first being it was bad business, the second being the mail in the coffin):

1. Exclusives were very expensive and not linked to growing subscribers. This is true within the other services but can be seen publicly by the failure of Tidal.

2. Frank Ocean screwed Universal Music (well played), resulting in the CEO declaring an end to exclusives [0].

[0]: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/frank-ocean-endle...