There has been a lot of discuss lately on the forum about when to release an album - emwhat with Tinie, Dua Lipa and probably Ed Sheerans return.

 

But when's the ideal time to release an artist album in these days when streams and singles rule the chart?

Edited January 24, 20178 yr by Steve201

Can someone add a poll if possible - tried to add one with choices -

 

1) 1 single

2) 2 singles

3) 3 or more singles

4) On air on sales album release eg like Beyonce

1 or 2, depending on the artist.

I think 2 is the best choice normally, gives the album and artist a bit of hype and avoids the potential of overplaying. Sometimes 1 single will suffice if the artist is big enough

Indeed annoying we have situations like Dua Lipa and Tinie Tempah at the moment who are just holding back constantly until they get a big hit even thought Tinie especially had 1/2 in the past 18 months, doesn't say much about the integrity of an album as a piece of complete work by an artist.

Not many people would buy his album anyways so I don't know whats he waiting for :lol:

Tinie?

 

To be fair he's one of the uks biggest male artists this decade but yeh his star has waned with some poor releases in the last 2/3 years!

It depends - I think the strategies by Chainsmokers and Dua Lipa are interesting, totally different in that one shys away from an album release but produces hit after hit and successful EPs and Dua who has been marketed into a hype but has pushed the album back and back in order to achieve a big hit and in a week could potentially have 3 Top 10 singles.

 

The old way of 2 singles and album release followed by 2 further singles is over and it's interesting to see different ways of keeping the album market relevant.

Surely it depends on the artist, or type of artist.

 

I know Calvin's already hinted at it but I do think certain artists will just stop releasing albums altogether.

After the first single is best. Follow up singles can boost promotion of the album.

Two. Lead, and then one alongside or just before the album release for maximum impact. Then two more, ideally a slow and an uptempo, to continue to promote the album and the artist to people who may be new listeners or who may be converted.

 

Few artists are big enough nowadays to manage more releases than that, unless they're a Calvin or a Tinie Tempah or someone like Jess Glynne who pops all of their collaborations on the album as album tracks, or who releases an 'album' after a whole string of singles, that is basically a compilation album of the already-released singles and then maybe two more potential singles and a lot of fluff.

Edited January 26, 20178 yr by 360Jupiter

The singles chart is leading this now - take an act like M.O for example, they are now on their 2nd single single since signing to a major (But about 8th overall), they have enough material to release an album but are nowhere ready to do so.

 

Their breakthrough single WDYTO went Top 20 and silver and the new song looks like it might just make the Top 40 this week - if they went with the traditional 2 singles and album release route now at best they would make the Top 75.

 

I think we will see more and more delayed album releases as record companies traditionally like an album to be sure bet and have previously relied on the 'Featuring the Top 10 smashes..' campaign to launch an album which is nearly impossible for new acts starting out to achieve so they will want to build up momentum and attempt to get a few hits before launching the album which almost makes releasing an album redundant as it essentially becomes a 5 singles and 5 extra tracks release with no further killer singles to keep the campaign going.

Yeh I agree it's different for which ever artist - for example newer artists have to release more singles first whereas older artists follow the traditional format as far as I can see!

If you are Led Zeppelin......NONE! B-)

Well this is it - and Pink Floyd too!