This past weekend, Frank Ocean released not one, but two new albums – one was a visual album called Endless and the other was a straight up Apple Music exclusive called BlondeBut besides the visual and audio differences, there's something else that separates the two – the labels they were released on.

As Pitchfork reports, Endless apparently fulfilled Frank's contract with Def Jam and Universal, as the label can be seen in the credits for the album. But on Apple Music, you can see Blond is credited to Boys Don't Cry, meaning Frank released it independently, unless he's being bankrolled by another major label secretly with his own imprint.

This comes as something of a shock, especially because Apple Music exclusives (What a Time to Be Alive, Views and Major Key, for instance) were all funneled through major labels. If Frank is truly indie now, it means he secured an Apple Music deal without even needing a major label. Perhaps his Three Six Zero management team and Apple Music's Head of Content Larry Jackson had a talk.

Surely Frank got a nice check from Apple for the two-week exclusive, but looking at his projections for first week sales, those royalties will come in handy too. As of now, he's looking at a No. 1 spot with between 225 and 250,000 copies moved first week.

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