Album releases, thankfully, are have not been impeded like many facets of the music industry have due to increased on-demand services. Of course, lining up outside of a music store for that particular release is often not a thing for mainstream music anymore, but the art of the album release has become more complex in many different ways. This article will highlight some interesting recent events that have happened to highlight just how the music landscape has shifted, and some advice that music marketers or even rising bands can use to potentially gain followers, insight and of course, commercial success.
Consider:
The Hidden Release
Consider the impact of the hidden release. Everyone dropped in amazement when Eminem released his album Kamikaze, which detailed his annoyance with the criticism thrown at his last album from top to bottom. However, the surprise nature of this led everyone to listen to what he had to say, which was a genius marketing move. While this isn’t perhaps the most promising effort to take part in for a new artist, unless they have a team of IMC online accredited marketing executives helping them spread the word, artists with a loyal fanbase might benefit from this immensely.
A hidden release often heightens demand, as if the album is a limited release despite being available for on-demand streaming whenever and indefinitely. There’s something about a hidden release that draws people to its alerting presence, and it can be the best way to generate plenty of hype and music-blogger attention.
If artists as massive as Eminem, Kendrick, Tyler The Creator among others can do this with impunity, it might be worth considering how this could fit into your own creative ambition and begin detailing how and where this might drop the most appropriately.
The Multi-Drop
Artists seems to be using the multi-drop method much more in recent months. It seems to be spurred on by Kanye. No matter what you think of the man, it’s hard to argue he still makes great music. His G.O.O.D music label have now become known for more frequent, 7 track albums that highlight a diverse and common range of project releases, helping fans gain more in a scattergun kind of approach. Kids See Ghosts, Ye and Pusha T’s album DAYTONA have all led to commercial success and were all released within weeks of another. More and more artists are jumping onto this bandwagon, releasing smaller EP’s for a flavorful press run before dropping their full album, which seems to be much more nourishing to fans than simply milking single after single until the full release. The multi-drop method is worthwhile to pursue if you haven’t already considered it, giving your project the chance to shine from multiple bouts of coverage, and for you to take more diverse risks with the kind of content you put out there.
We hope that these two shining examples give you food for thought as to what constitutes a great and alternative album release in the streaming culture we all share today.
