September 5, 201212 yr I wonder how many copies of albums that are purchased in Nov/Dec are actually still being listened to six months later? /rhetorical. There's a much higher percentage of albums being bought by non-music obsessives like X Factor viewers and Christmas gift givers than at other times of the year. It makes no sense that record companies would avoid these two huge factors when releasing albums. In fact, for certain artists it most definitely means fewer sales to release at a different time of the year.
September 5, 201212 yr Interesting report from BBC: "August is not a great month to release a big new record because most people aren't buying music at that point," he said. Talk about a circular argument! :rolleyes: Why though? It's the perfect time to release albums, what with Christmas coming. Sales are normally a LOT higher than the rest of the year, and a big album released in June time might not get exceptionally high sales anyway - take the week when Justin and Cheryl went up against each other in the albums. Well, just look at the massive sales Adele got, despite releasing at the 'wrong' time of year...
September 5, 201212 yr Sales may be higher later in the year, so you would think artists would prefer to release then, but could you imagine if absolutely NO albums were released outside of Christmas period? :lol:
September 5, 201212 yr Adele's 21 hardly indicates a trend or a pattern. Ah, but that wasn't my point. It was that albums *can* sell massively outside the traditional busy period. I had to smile at the article quoting the average #1 sale being over 100k last year, without mentioning that that was mostly down to Adele... Edited September 5, 201212 yr by vidcapper
September 5, 201212 yr Talk about a circular argument! :rolleyes: Well, just look at the massive sales Adele got, despite releasing at the 'wrong' time of year... Adele didn't release at the wrong time of the year. The first few weeks of the year can be a great time to release with massive sales boosts, but only for a specific type of music given the BRITs, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are all within 4-6 weeks of each other. She owed incredible amounts of sales to those events. The problem with so many acts releasing in the last quarter is that so many of them get lost, simply because they have to. There isn't enough space for them. Take the Saturdays last year, completely flopped. Yet had they released 2-3 months earlier, even if their sales halved, would still have been around #10, much further up the chart than where the ended up. The next week they still have a decent visual profile in retailers. There's probably only going to be another 2 or 3 albums released the week after so it's not like they have anything better to stock. But by releasing it at Christmas you're directly competing with another 8-10 albums released just that week, as well as a load of other albums that are selling well. So when it under performs (relatively) retailers see that, look at another 8-10 albums released the next week and so it gets 3 copies at #57 at the bottom of the CD shelves. Two weeks later it's being bought by so little people that it's lucky if you can buy it without asking a member of staff if they have a copy. To answer a point from the previous page, yes it's true that record companies want to release when most people will buy them, but they still need some shops to be able to sell them in. Granted it doesn't seem to have prevented anything at Christmas but the amount of space given to albums is decreasing all over. Just like what happened with the physical single until they eventually died. If it wasn't for about 8-12 weeks saving the albums market, they would too.
September 5, 201212 yr Mark has summed up why releasing in Q4 is immensely risk,y although the rewards are massive if you get it right. The trouble labels have with pop acts is that it's difficult to guess when momentum will be built up and lost so they release in Q4 as there's a higher chance of selling well if everything goes right. There's no guarantee that it will and one or two acts every year will lose out (see The Saturdays last year, and Pixie Lott despite getting a #1 single). This year it's not helped by the fact that a lot of guitar bands, who don't look at the schedule as much and just tend to release when an album's ready, are releasing as well. Pop acts are going to struggle when they've got to contend with Muse, The Killers, Green Day, Mumford & Sons, the XX, No Doubt and Biffy Clyro as well as acts of their own ilk - not to mention other more traditional "artists" who don't rely on mainstream promotion like Tinie Tempah.
September 5, 201212 yr It's a small point but I wouldn't say The XX will be a consistantly good seller for the whole of Q4.
September 5, 201212 yr Early december would still be good enough for the Christmas Market! It would, but you have less weeks with good sales. Rebecca Ferguson was the only really successful December release last year and that was only because discounting meant she sold well in the new year. It's a small point but I wouldn't say The XX will be a consistantly good seller for the whole of Q4. I was more highlighting them as a big week 1 seller who will dominate the stands in HMV and potentially give pop acts difficulty getting attention. I don't expect Green Day or No Doubt to sell much beyond week 1 either.
September 6, 201212 yr Have GreenDay not being getting any notice - the albums out in a few weeks and there is no single being played yet?!
September 6, 201212 yr Have GreenDay not being getting any notice - the albums out in a few weeks and there is no single being played yet?! They've released two OA/OS which now both have videos. They didn't do a lot but the first of their trilogy will still be a comfortable #2 behind Mumford and Sons.
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