Traversing the Music Industry: The Dependency of an Album’s Release ______________________________ A Senior Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Music Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology The University of the Arts ________________________________ In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of BACHELOR OF SCIENCE ________________________________ By Justin Bertrand May, 2020 Bertrand 1 For an ever-evolving environment, such as the music industry, it becomes difficult to define factors for generating success especially in regards to a record’s release. This is due to aspects such as distribution, marketing and the artist’s overall intention with the record. The current oversaturation of the music marketplace creates a sense of instability leaving the need for order. Accordingly, with the advancement of technology, templates for releasing music have been formed with tweaks implemented coinciding with each new standard within pop culture’s evolution. However, the caveat for release templates is the unification of the saturated market. With each release being delivered to the public through similar means, there is little to no differentiation between releases other than perhaps the brand itself. Additionally, albums that generate the most “noise” upon release often do so without necessarily following the industry standard. Whether it be Kanye West or Bon Iver, artists have proven that successful releases are not limited to one avenue of traction as album success is dependent on the targeted consumer and not the structure of the release itself. Release templates may prove to be successful on average, however, this is due to the forceful nature they impose by placing walls of promotion in front of consumers in order to lock attention rather than the product itself. In their entirety, templates can develop hindrances in an artist's success and musical progression. Regardless of the music industry’s adaptation to technological advancement, prerelease routines have maintained procedural steps such as announcement, press and singles as necessary steps for the release cycle to create momentum. In an article titled, Creating a Successful ​ Marketing Plan (for the Artist), Julie Desjarlais describes the criticality in radio, blog and other ​ online media for press interviews during the release cycle. Desjarlais also goes on to emphasize an importance in email newsletters in order to increase awareness amongst fans. These tactics Bertrand 2 direct consumers to an upcoming release in order to negate the possibility of it going unnoticed and therefore generates a demand for the held product. The problem in this lies with the assumption that the targeted audience is aloof to the anticipation of new releases. With the accessibility that the average consumer has to technology, information including albums upon release have the potential to be at the hands of anyone in the general public regardless of campaigns due to the actions of the consumers themselves. To generalize the “keys” for a successful release would essentially be to spread misinformation by treating multitudes of works as one in the same. Attacking the music market in such a way cannot possibly compliment the uniqueness that the artist intends to convey through their release. Many artists see this as they instead look to focus on what resonates with their specific community rather than the overarching calculations of clicks in hopes for sustainability. Prior to Childish Gambino’s official release of his 2020 album, 3.15.20, the artist ​ ​ released said works on his website without notice and within twenty four hours the album was removed. Covering the event, Pitchfork described how Childish Gambino “seemingly dropped a ​ new album earlier (March 15). A bunch of new songs were streaming on a website called DonaldGloverPresents.com, and the link to the site was retweeted by Glover’s manager Fam Rothstein. (The RT has since been removed, and Fam Rothstein’s Twitter account has been deleted.) Now, several hours later, the songs have disappeared” (Strauss). Despite this, the ​ ​ ​ release was the center of other music articles and fanatic chatter almost immediately. Consumers are constantly engaging with technology looking for artistic works yet to be released without the intervention of prerelease promotions. The “buzz” generated from the suddenness of Gambino’s Bertrand 3 album only to be taken away was undoubtedly a result from the differentiation it had to the “cookie cutter” nature of the average album release. By making the works public and unannounced, the community was caught off guard and accordingly reacted with genuine excitement only to have that rush turned once it was no longer available. This “give and take tactic” Childish Gambino implemented created a rollercoaster of emotions for his fanbase allowing the anticipation for his official release to be solely generated by the fan community themselves. This compliments Gambino’s authenticity as an artist as opposed to relying on corporations attempting to justify why people should delegate their interest towards the product. The concept of releasing a project with minimizing public awareness in and of itself can prove to be a plausible marketing tactic. Like Childish Gambino, artists such as Bon Iver have undergone similar release styles that differ from the guidelines laid out by Desjarlais. Leading up to Bon Iver’s 2016 album, 22 A Million, Justin Vernon (the artist behind Bon Iver) “knew he ​ ​ didn’t want to talk too much about the album or grant a lot of interviews” (Hilton). Instead Vernon held one press conference post album release in order to provide context; removing promotion completely from his release preparations. Nevertheless, this did not stop tracks from the album such as, “8(circle)”, from receiving well over forty million streams on Spotify alone. 22 A Million diverged from the genre and sound that Bon Iver had made its staple which ​ completely caught listeners by surprise. However, this abrupt nature, similar to that of which Childish Gambino had delivered, created attraction and popularity on it’s own. By simply making the music public, Vernon was able to have his album be perceived and praised organically. In turn, this negated the amount of press and album association prior to release and Bertrand 4 22 A Million was received without prior assumptions and value determined by the incomplete ​ picture that advertising can at times provide. When an artist advertises their project prior to release, they are only allowing the public a glimpse of the full product. As a result, the artist’s intentions and vision for the release are constricted and often skewed. It is here that consumers generate their own opinions and standpoints of what the release is before they have even come into contact with it. This is not limited to whether or not a consumer assumes the album is good or bad, but it also has the potential to hinder the listener’s experience come the release date. Rather than experience the project fully, listeners who already have a preconceived visualization of what to expect may be partially blinded to witnessing the album in its entirety. The consequences associated with utilizing marketing templates have proven to be relevant through Chance the Rapper’s 2019 album, The Big Day. Being Chance the Rapper’s ​ ​ “debut album”, alongside anticipation for the follow up from his award winning mixtape, Coloring Book, The Big Day drew excitement from casual and super fans alike. Chance the ​ ​ ​ Rapper announced the album in July 2018, one year prior to the project’s release. In February of 2019, Chance confirmed the release of his debut to be set in July and in June released a promotional video titled, “The Next Chapter Begins” alongside a preorder for the upcoming album. Due to the minimal details that come with promotion in conjunction to the high promise the announcement campaign provided, consumers had already had the expectation for it to be the artist’s best album to date. However, this ended up being the album’s downfall when it came time to release. What was expected to be an evolved culmination of Chance the Rapper’s previous success was deemed “a moderately disappointing work”(Hamilton) by both critics as Bertrand 5 well as fans. Despite still receiving praise, The Big Day could not meet the expectations set from ​ ​ advertising Chance the Rapper’s debut album. Putting labels in front of consumers and telling them how to perceive the album prior to release set the album up for failure when the final works did not match the preceding appraisal. In a sense, “creating noise” and promoting the value in a project before it has had a chance to be admired is the equivalent to notifying the public of one’s lack of faith in the album. Just as Justin Vernon provided context post-release for 22 A Million, artists may find it ​ ​ rewarding to allow their albums the ability to stand alone and provide its own value without others telling them how they should understand it before even being made available. The concept of a minimalistic marketing approach has proven itself with the album, Kids ​ See Ghosts, released in June 2018 by Kanye West and Kid Cudi under the name Kids See ​ Ghosts. The album, Kids See Ghosts was announced in April of that year just two months prior. ​ ​ “After tweet-announcing the upcoming release of his own album, Kanye (announced) that he and Cudi also had an album coming”(Fitzgerald). Rather than introducing the project with an announcement campaign, singles, visual promo and so on, Kanye West instead made the reveal a side-note; intentionally allowing for the importance of the statement to be provided by the fans rather than himself. The fans and genre community were more than sufficient at creating anticipation and marketing for the release as it spun into virality.