With the internet allowing for fans everywhere to download music almost immediately and of little to no cost, these artists must do what it takes to stay popular and keep their music of importance to all. One new method that a select number of artists have been using to keep the public on their toes is surprise album dropping. With little or no notice, albums are released online for the public to download. It seems as though the most positive effect of this method is the shock factor. I believe that the reason this is such a great idea is because of the hype that it creates. Not only among the die hard fans for these artists, but simply for everyone on social media and the internet. This has had increasingly positive results, and after looking further into the idea it seems it has been around for a few years now.
This new method has different options and it is left up to the musician to decide which way would make sense for them. In 2012, singer-songwriter and rapper Frank Ocean informed his fans that his album “Channel Orange” would release in stores on July 17. He ended up releasing the album a week early available for download on iTunes. This was a great choice for his career as the album did well and fans were surprised but excited with the early release in music.
A somewhat different but interesting surprise drop occurred when Jay-Z released his album “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” In June 2013, Jay-Z informed his fans he was releasing this album, which was not known at all at the time, through an advertisement during Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Two weeks after this advertisement, the public could download this album via a Samsung app just two weeks later. Another new way to drop music, and in my opinion this was smart. It allowed for a small amount of notice, but still was unexpected and surprising. This was a great combination and Jay-Z’s album did very well.
Two of the most surprising album drops in my opinion were Beyonce’s self-titled fifth album in December of 2013, and Drakes recent mixtape “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.” Drake and Beyonce are two of the most well known singers in today’s rap, R&B and pop genres. Beyonce gave no warning of this release, and her record label had been saying it would not drop until 2014. When this happened overnight, the album sold 80,000 copies in the first three hours of the release. Clearly, this method went extremely well for Beyonce and was a great choice. Drake’s release occurred this February and arrived with no notice. This is his fourth album that has gone platinum, and the surprise drop only helped these sales.
It is clear that in order for these surprise albums to do well, the artist has to be of high status and well known. However, I believe that if the musician has these qualities, they should use this new way of releasing music at least once in their career. With the music industry constantly changing and adapting to the new technology we are provided, fans love the idea of being surprised with a new album.
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