Renaissance managed to get a #1 song with Break My Soul and a genuine hit top 10 with Cuff It. act ii is going to get a multi-week #1 smash with Texas Hold 'Em. Lemonade, the album prior to the act series, had its biggest single peak only #10.

 

Did this recent Bey smashery prove Hive's claims that the Lemonade era would've been much much bigger had the music been on streaming?
Discuss.

Formation would’ve went to number 1 if it was on streaming and to buy after the SB. The buzz after that was huge 

 

Absolutely, I think people underestimate how popular Lemonade was at the time. Formation caused a lot of controversy and convo especially around the video and the SB performance. Not putting it on Spotify was one of the worst decisions she’s ever made in her career

I mean if were being completely honest: Formation paved the way for Gambinos "This is America". I think Formation couldve achieved a very similar run like This is America. I mean she was literally everywhere after she performed it at the SB

It truly was a missed opportunity 

Formation had everything to go straight to #1 if only she had released it on Spotify 

the hype after the Super Bowl was huge 

1 minute ago, HANZ94 said:

It truly was a missed opportunity 

Formation had everything to go straight to #1 if only she had released it on Spotify 

the hype after the Super Bowl was huge 

she didn't release it anywhere. it had an unlisted video on yt only 

Formation will slowly retcon itself as a signature smash. Hold Up could have done cute numbers but not much.

Yes it would have been much bigger if bey wasn’t a self saboteur 

 

and for what? Tidal? SMH 

11 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

she didn't release it anywhere. it had an unlisted video on yt only 

And whose fault is that? 

Formation and Sorry would have been bigger. Formation would have been #1 and who knew how Sorry was gonna perform. It charted all summer 2016 and sold like 2M copies that year alone

1 minute ago, GraceRandolph said:

And whose fault is that? 

what do you mean?

 

she did it herself because she wanted it that way. i support peoples artistic decisions, but it is a fact that if she released it properly. she would have a huge hit and a modern classic

formation wouldve been at 600-800M streams.

It was big when it came out but it’s remained irrelevant since then and deserves it honestly. It was beyond overhyped and was always going to be, even when it got added to streaming most of it’t number came from the first year alone. 

Formation would NOT have gone #1 because of Spotify. It would've gone #1 because of its potential digital sales and its music video. The song wasn't available for download until Lemonade was released and the video was unlisted so you could only see it if you had a link which also meant that Billboard didn't count its views. And on top of all that, it was also available as a FREE download via SoundCloud right after release. 

 

There were so many factors that prevented it from going #1 and all of them were done by Beyoncé's team. I don't know why they did what they did but it surely wasn't worth it. Now, Formation is a cute one-week Top 10 single that debuted at #10 and fell because it was released months after its very publicized performance at the Super Bowl and its very controversial and heavily-debated music video. 

Much bigger yes.

Beyoncé would’ve been a streaming DARLING if she released Lemonade on all platforms when it was released .

 

Genuinely, that album was setup to be bigger than Self-Titled. And it would’ve been if she didn’t sabotage it’s even further success in every metric. She did everything that no artist would’ve ever done to their art .

 

Regardless though that album is still legendary. I just think it’s a testament to her power. There’s really no one else that can hold a candle to her acclaim and success this generation other than Taylor. 

Yes, Lemonade would have been much bigger if it was on streaming. Formation would have likely debuted #1. Hold Up, Sorry, and 6 Inch would have debuted top 10. Hold Up probably would have been much bigger worldwide.
 

It’s still a big album. It’s an iconic album and era. The problem was that Beyoncé didn’t really let her music be consumed via streaming until Renaissance. That hurt her streaming power. Either way, she’s doing much better now. Lemonade is continually having several songs go viral. She had all her studio do 1M this week. Embrace the past, but live for now. Mother is thriving.

There's a lot of "if's" when it comes to a serial saboteur like Mrs. Knowles.

 

If she had a full tracking week for many of her releases.

 

If it wasn't kept off of other streaming services.

 

Formation wasn't the only missed opportunity, there was also Feeling Myself upon many others sent to die on TIDAL.

 

 

 

 

 

Lemonade felt massive. It's cultural impact was huge so yeah I agree that it was only really Tidal holding it back from being a much bigger deal not that it didn't still do well because it did. There were a lot of songs on there that felt like they could have been big hits though. Formation, Hold Up, Sorry, 6 inch and All Night all did pretty well in the US. They could have done better on streaming and some could have taken off globally especially formation which already did well in several countries. 

1 hour ago, Jon Snow said:

she didn't release it anywhere. it had an unlisted video on yt only 

I truly don’t what was she thinking 

Absolutely. People seem to forget that it was made Tidal exclusive "Formation" could easily hit no.1

Lemonade was a massive era. It felt like her peak to me even if Sasha Fierce had more hits.

 

I also think everyone overhypes her "self-sabotages" during that era. Yeah she could have and probably should have more #1s in the US but her legacy is more than cemented.

 

I mean, you could debate whether keeping Lemonade off streaming really made a major difference in her streaming power and the commercial success of her work within the last 10 years but I feel like these topics are merely footnotes in an account of her career.

6 inch was a smash waiting to happen, the best song on that album 

Absolutely. it's undeniably one of the greatest albums of the 21st century, one of the biggest cultural moments of the 21st century, and the conceptualization of each track in line with the Lemonade film produced (IMO) some of her best work ever. Formation, Sorry and Hold Up could've been global smashes, I know the conversation normally falls to talking about Formation but Hold Up is the global smasher here, I remember it being EVERYWHERE and the music video features that iconic yellow dress which is one of her signature looks of the 2010s.

On top of that Beyonce delisted the Formation MV, you could only find the video if you had a direct link to it.