Yeah, it's like Airplanes, which also climbed to #1 like 2 weeks before its release date.

 

Release dates can still be useful, as a vague idea of when the song might peak, and also the songs that have single versions that are different to the album versions often see a big boost on release week. Also sometimes the remix EP can sell a lot too. But the actual CDs don't really contribute much anymore.

 

Release dates are useful for radio stations and record companies...its part of the reason why OA/OS ultimately failed though radio stations are too conservative to play records straight away from the moment of release they would rather play old songs gauranteed to get people sticking to their stations.

 

for example with Price Tag last Feb even though it was at no1 in the charts and had sold 90k in its first week radio 1 still only clisted it instead of putting straight into high rotation!!

Every breath you take, every...

 

Whoops, wrong song.

 

I realise I'm SUPER late to this but I just realised that makes 2 of yesterday's chart entries being compared to Sting/The Police :P