Be like Beyonce: Apple presses labels for more 'Beyonce'-type exclusives as download sales decline

Nearly three months after Beyonce released her self-titled album and she still has folks talking. In fact, Apple wants more albums like hers as they have noticed a decline in album downloads.

According to Billboard, Apple Inc.'s music chief Robert Kondrk has been pressuring major labels for releases similar to last year's Beyonce exclusive.

Kondrk wants labels to release exclusive albums through Apple that would exclude services like YouTube and Spotify to help shore up slowing download sales.

These talks with label executives took place during Grammy Week in Los Angeles in January and were sparked by Beyonce's success in launching her album exclusively on iTunes in December for one week. During that week, the album was only sold in its entirety.

The album sold 1 million copies globally in that week alone.

After the first week, the album was then made available for sale at other retailers, and fans were able to buy tracks individually.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, music download sales are facing a decline as digital track sales fell 5.7% from 1.34 billion units to 1.26 billion units in 2013.

Now Apple is turning up the heat on labels to follow Bey's footsteps. They are pressing labels to think about possible windowing strategies as a way to buoy faltering sales.

Although Apple operates the world's largest music store and recently introduced an Internet radio service, they do not have the on-demand music service similar to Spotify or YouTube.