If Michael did a Beyonce when releasing an album.

putte

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After the huge success Beyonce is doing right know with her new stuff, releasing the new album first only on Itunes without doing any promotion. Do you think Michael Jackson could have done the same? I personally think this was a brilliant way to come out with new material.
 
Let's wait until the hype dies down and the dust settles and we have the final sales figures to see how successful really is Beyoncé's strategy. It created a lot of instant hype and buzz, no doubt and it will take the album to Nr 1, but at the end of the day it's longevity in high chart positions, not first day's or week's sales, which make albums big sellers.
 
That's true, I agree.

Im a fan of both. I don't think her new album will be like Thriller or Bad in sales figures, no way. But I think it will sell well for today standards.
 
I think i read that mj was planning some innovative way of releasing new music in 09 during his tii tour, he was going to release a downloadable single a month. You're right putte, i can imagine mj doing something unusual re album releases like beyonce just did. Same with his announcement of tii, instead of the usual media interview routine and the chatshow circuit to 'reintroduce' himself to the public, he just came out from nowhere, said this is it a few times and disappeared again, frenzy in his wake.
 
I think it's good short term but then what? There is a video with each song already. I want something that I can actually hold in my hands. I want the cd. Michael is gone and it's just different to me. I know the times are changing.
 
Electro;3939869 said:
isn't it the same stradegy that justin timberlake had for his last two albums?

No.

The thing about the release of this Beyoncé album is that no one expected it. There was no promotion, nothing that would even signal the arrival of a new album. And then it was just put out there on iTunes like a surprise. And of course the news spread like wildfire through social media etc. Another thing is that besides the songs the album includes videos to ALL songs (+ three more).This is what she said about it:

Today, Beyonce reiterated her thoughts on today’s music, while explaining the reason she decided to release her album in this particular way:

I feel like right now, people experience music differently. I remember watching Thriller on TV with my family, it was an event, we all sat around the TV and now looking back, I am so happy I was born around that time. I miss that immersive experience. Now, people only listen to a few seconds of a song on their IPODS, they don’t really invest in a whole album. It’s all about the single and the hype. There’s so much that gets between the music, and the artists and the fans. I felt like, I don’t want anybody to give the message when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it is ready, and from me to my fans.

I told my team, ‘I want to shoot a video for every song and put them all out at the same time!’ Everyone thought I was crazy, but we’re actually doing it, it’s happening!’

I wanted to make this body of work, and I feel like it’s something that’s lost in pop music. I wanted people to hear things differently and have a first impression. Not just listen to a 10 second clip, but actually be able to see a whole vision of the album. It was important that we made this a movie, we made this an experience.

I wanted everyone to see the whole picture, and to see how personal everything was to me. I will make my best art and just put it out. And that’s why it’s out today!

It seems to work for now, because the way it was released generated a lot of buzz, but long term is what matters in whether an album is successful or not, so we will see.
 
marebear;3939868 said:
I think it's good short term but then what? There is a video with each song already. I want something that I can actually hold in my hands. I want the cd. Michael is gone and it's just different to me. I know the times are changing.

Don't worry about the CD part, it hasn't died just yet. While an iTunes exclusive for the first week or so, 'Beyoncé' will be available on CD in the next few days. No way the Estate would just release an entirely new MJ album and keep it exclusive to iTunes. No. Way.

They might release it early on iTunes to help prevent leaks (as has happened with Beyoncé, Watch the Throne, channel ORANGE, none of which were leaked), but they would definitely release it onto CD a week or two later as all the aforementioned albums were :)
 
I think this was a genius move for Beyoncé, and I think it could have worked for Michael too if he were here to release a new album. It’s true that it’s impossible to say yet what this kind of strategy means for album longevity, but in the US Beyoncé’s new album has sold more in three days than what for example Lady Gaga’s new album has sold to date. Even if the album doesn’t have much longevity it has already sold a respectable number of copies.

I think Beyoncé is a solid album, but it doesn’t have songs that immediately stand out to me as huge hit singles. I think this strategy is perfect for an album like that, because the lack of hit singles would have hurt the album sales much more if she had taken the traditional route of releasing a lead single first. I think that could have worked for Michael too, since I’m sure the album would have been great, but I don’t think radio would have played his singles. Just releasing the album as a surprise would have made people check it out out of curiosity, and an underperforming lead single wouldn’t hurt the sales.

Another reason why I think it could have worked for Michael too is that I don’t think he would have done much promo anyway. Usually for an album to have longevity it needs several hit singles that are played on the radio, but the artist also needs to do promo like interviews, performances on TV etc. I don’t think Michael would have had any interest in that.

Besides, I think it would have been fitting if the King of Pop had done something new and innovative with his album release.
 
Well remember when (I believe it was Will.i.am) said that Michael planned something similar.. In fact I believe there was talk that Michael was planning just to release singles periodically during THIS IS IT! Beyoncé very well could have gotten her idea from that..

All in all, this is a great experiement to see how well it sells, I mean you take out costs of production of disc and packaging etc.. It will be lower cost on music company side which could favor them in the long run..
 
respect77;3939871 said:
No.

The thing about the release of this Beyoncé album is that no one expected it. There was no promotion, nothing that would even signal the arrival of a new album. And then it was just put out there on iTunes like a surprise. And of course the news spread like wildfire through social media etc. Another thing is that besides the songs the album includes videos to ALL songs (+ three more).This is what she said about it:



It seems to work for now, because the way it was released generated a lot of buzz, but long term is what matters in whether an album is successful or not, so we will see.

David Bowie did a similar thing earlier this year with The Next Day. Most people thought Bowie was retired and he had not released any new material in a decade. It was publically unknown he was recording.
 
KOPV;3940383 said:
Well remember when (I believe it was Will.i.am) said that Michael planned something similar.. In fact I believe there was talk that Michael was planning just to release singles periodically during THIS IS IT! Beyoncé very well could have gotten her idea from that..

All in all, this is a great experiement to see how well it sells, I mean you take out costs of production of disc and packaging etc.. It will be lower cost on music company side which could favor them in the long run..

Nah, I highly doubt Beyoncé was inspired by the idea of Michael releasing singles during his This Is It tour... I even have doubts she's aware of that idea to be honest. Although, as qbee stated above, Beyoncé WAS inspired by how Thriller was an event however, and she wanted to make the release of her album an event.

And well, she's succeeded. It's unprecedented to this scale and I haven't seen anyone stop talking about it all week. Interested to see how it performs in the long-run but I do know that it's sold 828,773+ copies in the first 3 days alone.

DuranDuran;3940409 said:
David Bowie did a similar thing earlier this year with The Next Day. Most people thought Bowie was retired and he had not released any new material in a decade. It was publically unknown he was recording.

I don't think it's that similar. No-one knew that David Bowie was recording or even thinking of a new album, then it was announced and followed by two months or so of promotion.

Whereas for Beyoncé, fans did know that she had been recording (she used an entirely new song for her Pepsi commercial, which she then performed on tour), it was just a question of when she'd finish up and release it. Many, including me, thought it'd be 2014 at the very earliest. The shock was a release to even the most knowledgable of Beyoncé fans. Of course as we know, there was no 2 months of promotion - all promotion started the minute it hit iTunes.

I guess if you were to focus on the general public alone (who wouldn't have known Beyoncé was recording), then I suppose you could say they're somewhat similar as the general public wouldn't have known that Bowie or Beyoncé were recording material, especially because the latter was on a world-wide tour and most would think she's pre-occupied with that :)
 
What I observed about redord sales dynamics is that it's usually not the albums which sell instantly, in their first week which become the all time huge sellers. Today artists seem to compete for best first week sales. That's always the what the talk is about: "XY sold 1.5 million copies in its first week, WOW!". But then these albums typicall sell a couple of thousands more and that's it. They tend to stuck at the 1.5-2 million range overall.

The key to a real successful album is not first week sales. It's longevity. Michael's Thriller debuted at #11 when it was released and it took time for it to climb to Nr 1. Eventually it spent 37 weeks at #1 but it was a process and it was longevity on the charts that made that album the huge success it was. Another all time best seller is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon. But when it was released it only spent one week at #1. Yet, all these artists who sell 1.5-2 million of their albums in their first weeks can only dream of the numbers it eventually sold. Another all time big seller is Bob Marley's Legend - and it was never Nr 1! But it has longevity. And if you say today's record market is different with iTunes, the Internet etc. - true to some extent, but then sometimes I think it's just an excuse because if an album really appeals to people and has longevity it still can sell big numbers.See Adele's 21! And that sold "only" 300K or so in its first week which is not huge by today's standards for first week sales. But it had longevity and ended up selling about 11 million in the US. So that tells me that if the music is good and it appeals to people it still can sell, so maybe sometimes the Internet etc. is just used as a convenient excuse, but the real problem is that a lot of music today is just not that appealing to people that they would spend money on it.

Most of the new releases today sell on the instant hype during their release but then it quickly dies down in a couple of weeks and that's it. So it's all about hype and promotion - and to be honest Beyoncé's "non promotion" promotion is promotion as well. Just a different strategy. I mean people bought the album without knowing its content just because of the hype and buzz... So that's pretty much buying an album because of the hype and not because of the music. Not saying the music on it is not good. What I heard from it doesn't impress me, but then Beyoncé was never my cup of tea. But when people buy an album without knowing its content the only reason they are buying it is the hype and the marketing strategy directed at them, isn't it?
 
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I mean people bought the album without knowing its content just because of the hype and buzz...

No doubt many of the hardcore fans did, but there is no doubt a lot of people bought it because they liked the sound of it. The musical portion of album is roughly 65 minutes, you could preview just over 20 minutes of that on iTunes, which isn't too bad. Probably enough for many to decide whether they like the sound of it or not.

I agree with your point about longevity. '21' is essentially this decades 'Thriller', in the sense that it sold tens of millions and propelled Adele to worldwide fame. If the artist can achieve excellent opening week sales, that's really good! In most cases, it shows people were anticipating your next album and that they liked what they could hear of the album!

However, as you said, if you can dominate more in the long run, that's even better. If you can achieve both high opening week sales and a dominant longevity, you've pretty much hit the jackpot. If Adele's followup to '21' is excellent musically, it has the possibility of doing that.
 
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HIStoric;3940650 said:
No doubt many of the hardcore fans did, but there is no doubt a lot of people bought it because they liked the sound of it. The musical portion of album is roughly 65 minutes, you could preview just over 20 minutes of that on iTunes, which isn't too bad. Probably enough for many to decide whether they like the sound of it or not.

I did see several people state on general forums such as LSA that they bought it because of the hype and because of all the buzz they were dying to hear it because all social media was talking about it etc. People who said otherwise they probably would not have bought it. It's a marketing strategy that seemed to have worked to some extent, but it does not say anything about Beyoncé as an artist, to be honest. Or even about the new material. It says something about her marketing team/her marketing skills. Would it have sold the same with a traditional strategy? IMO probably not.
 
Well just to be fair, most albums I don't know are released unless I look it up after hearing the first single or two and wanting to know when the album is releases... I KNOW a large majority (unless true fans of someone -and if they are they already know about it) do it that way, so if the album is dropped already and the music is playing people will buy.. The music playing on the radio is the biggest form of publicity for the album.. Not only that, I don't remember national news ever mentioning a Beyoncé album being released until she pulled the "surprise" release.

So the way I see it, the publicity that THAT got, is bigger than any promotion they could have done prior to the release.. Plus her name was already going around due to the fact she is touring.. Beyoncé was on peoples mind!!
 
But when people buy an album without knowing its content the only reason they are buying it is the hype and the marketing strategy directed at them, isn't it?
Decades ago, people bought albums without hearing the content, other than maybe a single, if it was played on the radio. That didn't happen with most genres like blues, folk, gospel, bluegrass, etc. People couldn't go to a record store and play a record, 8-track, cassette, and 'reel to reel' to sample the songs. They just bought it. In some cases they might have a friend that have the album. But if they wanted a copy, they would need a tape recorder, and had to actually play the records. That takes time, especially making a mix tape. Burning a CD takes a few minutes, so it's fast to make multiple copies or upload it online, where many people can copy it.
 
we will see how this goes.. once the hype dies down, I wonder if any of the singles will be 'hits'
 
^ Well appose to what some people are saying here it is on pace to become the best selling album of 2013, reached roughly 1 million already within a week and has broken records..

So to back up what I was saying, having a 'surprise' album and that being national news is bigger than any commercial, billboard or other promotion she could have done..

It is selling MORE because of it.
 
^ In what way? No album could never beat Thriller in sales.. the music industry is literally built in a way that it cannot, so we can rest assure that it will always be the top selling album.
 
^ In what way? No album could never beat Thriller in sales.. the music industry is literally built in a way that it cannot, so we can rest assure that it will always be the top selling album.

lol. good to know. nothing against beyonce or anything. I like her, but I just always want Michael to be number 1. that may be a little selfish of me, but I cant help it when it comes to Michael.
 
Now, as much as I love Beyonce, I don't really think people bought her album because of how it sounded, I have to agree with respect77 on this one. I think people bought because of the hype of it being released so unexpectedly. I'm taking a lucky guess here, maybe her sales will start diminishing after another two weeks, I don't know. And I'm guessing this album with sell from 2mil-5mil. *shrugs*
 
michaeljackson&lisamarie;3941089 said:
do you guys think it will beat thriller?

Don't worry about that. Beyoncé's sales are not in that league. I'd say her best that she could achieve is around 5-6 million copies in the US (and that would already be her best selling album yet and I don't think she will reach that). (Thriller sold 29 million in the US.)
 
respect77;3941145 said:
Don't worry about that. Beyoncé's sales are not in that league. I'd say her best that she could achieve is around 5-6 million copies in the US (and that would already be her best selling album yet and I don't think she will reach that). (Thriller sold 29 million in the US.)

thanks, trying to keep it positive. I have to admit though I was getting a little worried that it could beat thriller. I love beyonce, but I love Michael way more.
 
xosweetseducingsighsxo;3941109 said:
Now, as much as I love Beyonce, I don't really think people bought her album because of how it sounded, I have to agree with respect77 on this one.
There's always the Beyoncé fans who would immediately buy it anyway but I think it's both. A large number of purchases would have been a result of the massive hype (I've seen a few comments suggesting they bought it just because of the hype), and a good number because they liked the music. I say that because, you can preview 20+ minutes of the 65 minute album on iTunes (definitely enough to see whether you like the sound of the album) and it's received critical acclaim so I don't find the last option hard to believe. Critics aside, I've seen many comments across websites praising the album so yeah. I think it's both.

michaeljackson&lisamarie;3941158 said:
thanks, trying to keep it positive. I have to admit though I was getting a little worried that it could beat thriller. I love beyonce, but I love Michael way more.

There has been another album with a stronger opening week (The 20/20 Experience: Part 1) so I wouldn't worry just yet. :)

Honestly, I think it'd take a number of years for an album to reach 100,000,000 sales (keeping in mind Thriller, 104million copies as of 2006, is roughly 40-50 million copies ahead of the second best selling album of all time). So it'd surely take a good number of years, perhaps decade, maybe even two. Who knows speciically, all we know is that it'd take years ^_^

marebear;3940884 said:
Does anyone know if her album is good?
I think it's pretty decent! I like to play an album a few times before I give a final judgement (as I find a number of albums take a few plays to get used to) but so far I've quick enjoyed this album! I'm not sure if it's my favourite (which atm is either 'B'day' or 'I Am... Sasha Fierce').

But yeah, it's definitely a very solid effort in my opinion :)
 
I'll repeat - There will NEVERRRRR be an album that outsells Thriller. It is damn near impossible! Reaching a 10 million sale is an incredible feat now.. It has been 13-14 years since anyone was able to hit the 30 million mark. and only 2 albums broke the 20 million mark in the last decade... and 'The Bodyguard' soundtrack was the last album to reach a 40 million mark and that was released in 1992, almost around 22 years ago..
 
HIStoric;3941289 said:
There's always the Beyoncé fans who would immediately buy it anyway but I think it's both. A large number of purchases would have been a result of the massive hype (I've seen a few comments suggesting they bought it just because of the hype), and a good number because they liked the music. I say that because, you can preview 20+ minutes of the 65 minute album on iTunes (definitely enough to see whether you like the sound of the album) and it's received critical acclaim so I don't find the last option hard to believe. Critics aside, I've seen many comments across websites praising the album so yeah. I think it's both.



There has been another album with a stronger opening week (The 20/20 Experience: Part 1) so I wouldn't worry just yet. :)

Honestly, I think it'd take a number of years for an album to reach 100,000,000 sales (keeping in mind Thriller, 104million copies as of 2006, is roughly 40-50 million copies ahead of the second best selling album of all time). So it'd surely take a good number of years, perhaps decade, maybe even two. Who knows speciically, all we know is that it'd take years ^_^


I think it's pretty decent! I like to play an album a few times before I give a final judgement (as I find a number of albums take a few plays to get used to) but so far I've quick enjoyed this album! I'm not sure if it's my favourite (which atm is either 'B'day' or 'I Am... Sasha Fierce').

But yeah, it's definitely a very solid effort in my opinion :)

B'Day and I Am Sasha Fierce..man oh man I love those lol..I thought 4 was really good, although it didn't sell to Bey's standards.
 
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