The event of the album drop
How modern life has shaped the announcement and release of music.
As I write this, all 16 tracks from Taylor Swift’s new record are in Spotify’s Global Top 50. She’s sold over 50 million albums, won 10 Grammy awards, won Woman of the Decade by Billboard and holds several world records in music sales. She’s as big as an artist can get. We’ll often associate such a level of stardom with huge fanfare around their lives, especially within every aspect of their artistic expression. A MET Gala level of extravagance and showmanship.
Announcements of a new album from one of the biggest pop stars will usually be all over the internet, billboards and really any surface that marketing agencies have calculated humans lay their eyes on. You knew if Michael Jackson was releasing a new album. Taylor Swift’s latest release avoided all of that, and still seemed to succeed commercially.
Taylor released her new album, folklore, on Friday 27th, July 2020. The album announcement was first hinted at just hours earlier on her instagram, followed closely by confirmation on her twitter account. She mentioned that the current pandemic influenced her decision to “just put [folklore] out onto the world”, and while I don’t wish to undermine the choice and risk involved, this was not exactly something unheard of.
The traditional industry convention for an album release used to involve recording, mixing, mastering, sending the recordings over to plants to create packaging and copies, and shipped to reporters and critics prior to the release. Most stores then had to receive the copies to be able to sell on the day of release, and for large enough names maybe even keep the store open until midnight for sales and listening parties. Think Tool releasing Fear Inoculum last year, their first album in 13 years.
The recorded music industry was born soon after Thomas Edison created the phonograph in 1877 and sound could be recorded and played back. Staple names such as Columbia Records have been around since 1889. Once the vinyl EP (extended play) was introduced, releases could hold approximately 3 minutes of music on each side, and while each side was given equal importance initially, around the 50s these were divided into the single and the b-side, with the intention of having the single as the selling point and the b-side as a bonus song. While the LP (long play) format that we know as album today was introduced in 1948 by Columbia, it was until the late 60s where the format finally overcame the single in popularity.
Regardless of the format of release, the equipment required was so expensive that the only way for artists to record was in a professional studio. Gaining access to one also had a high price, meaning that for many, being signed to a record company was the only way to do it. Having a monopoly of studio time, distribution and collaborations with radio stations, musicians had practically no other way of having their music heard without label backing. Knowing how much power they held, these contracts would usually be stacked against the musicians, occasionally making them give away large percentages of their sales and in many cases, the rights to the music they recorded. Such contracts lead to the frustration behind Pink Floyd’s Have a Cigar and Prince changing his name to a symbol in the 90s.
It was clear that musicians making deals with record labels kept getting the short end of the stick. As soon as technological advances lead to access to more affordable production equipment and a more direct interaction with fans, artists were ready to try to disrupt the status quo.
The first example that comes to mind for many is Radiohead. As their contract with EMI expired after 6 albums, they started a negotiation that would give the band ownership of those first 6 records. When EMI rejected, the band decided to go on and work on their next album independently. On October 1st 2007, Jonny Greenwood, band member, wrote a simple “Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days; we’ve called it In Rainbows” in the band’s blog. The announcement also included a link to pre-order the album where you could pay whatever amount you wanted for it, including nothing at all. The band was at this point already one of the biggest names in rock, behind classics like Karma Police and Creep, and underrated gems such as Like Spinning Plates and Life in a Glasshouse, which I will defend forever.
The move, which at the time felt unthinkable, turned out to be a great success for the band. Time magazine called it “the most important release in the recent history of the music business.” The decision turned out well for the band, as they had complete control of their initial distribution, made sure there would be no early leaking, would receive all of the revenue of sales and generated a lot of attention on the band. Thom Yorke, the band’s singer claimed that they made more money from digital sales of In Rainbows than all other albums combined. Once a physical copy of the album came out, it still got sufficient sales to top the Billboards, leaving aside any fear that offering the music in a digital manner beforehand would greatly affect sales.
In Rainbows wasn’t the first nor the last time that bands would experiment in how they released their music. In 2004, U2 partnered with Apple to release How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in a custom U2-themed iPod which would also include the band’s discography. They’d leave us with a collective déjà vû in 2014 when every iTunes account would have a free copy of Songs of Innocence. Jay-Z’s 2013 Magna Carta… Holy Grail was first announced in a commercial during the NBA Finals. The rapper made a partnership with Samsung allowing the album to be heard early through an app that would only run on Samsung phones. To build up excitement for 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West would release tracks that didn’t make it into the album every Friday, naming these GOOD Fridays. Price’s 20Ten was distributed through newspapers. Arcade Fire’s Refkletor included several underground shows where the band would perform under the moniker The Reflektors. Nine Inch Nails and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard both accompanied albums with online video games. Wu-Tan Clan’s single copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, meant to replicate a unique instance of art such as a painting, which sold for millions.
Social media and the internet have allowed fans to have a more custom relationship with those making art and content they enjoy. The age of the one-hit wonder seems further behind, as anyone lucky enough to get their 15 minutes of fame can find ways to stretch it in the ways they interact online. Fandoms and ‘stans’ can end up providing enough to sustain a career without breaking into the mainstream again.
The recent Coronavirus outbreak has also played a role in the decisions artists make. While not explicit, Taylor Swift’s announcement implied that releasing the album out of nowhere came from the uncertainty that’s become part of our lives. When the pandemic was first declared, several large artists started delaying their albums. So many were doing this in fact, that Rolling Stone even started keeping track of it. From the perspective of consumers, this might have seemed illogical. After all, everyone is now locked inside, and they might have more time than ever to sit down and listen to new music. However, the reality is that for a long time now, the bulk of income for musicians has not been music sales, and definitely from streams. Rather than having a tour to promote a new album, for many, an album is just an excuse to tour again. There is an entire financial and artistic ecosystem surrounding an album; merch is made, records shipped, (in other circumstances) tours planned, entire teams of artists from other disciplines assembled to plan artwork, videos, and entire aesthetics for such events.
There were some who described Taylor’s release as “pulling a Beyoncé”, as she was also a big part for artists of this calibre to rethink the traditional album release. Her last three albums, Beyoncé (2013), Lemonade (2016) and Everything is Love (2018, released with Jay-Z as The Carters) have shown up with practically no prior build up. The album Beyoncé was announced in an instagram post after it had been uploaded to iTunes, with short films to accompany every song, calling it a “visual album”. Several artists like Drake, U2 and J. Cole have since then tried to emulate the frenzy that comes from releasing an album seemingly out of nowhere.
It’s exciting to think about how the announcement of an album went from the boring responsibility of promoting work to boost sales, to finding ways to interact with fans and enhance the final product. Everything from the more business-oriented, to the multi-disciplinary art statements is valid. While it’s hard to predict what might come next, I think any move that returns control to the creators and facilitates fans’ ability to obtain said creations should be applauded.
If you’re interested in the music that came from such innovative releases, I’ve made a playlist with others I didn’t get a chance to mention there. I’d recommend reading up on the stories behind them, as each brought something new and interesting to the established ways of releasing music. If you know of other releases that felt creative to you, feel free to share them. And in case you were wondering, yes, I liked folklore. Go stream it to make sure Cats 2 never needs to happen.
