To Promote or Not To Promote … That is Music’s Biggest Question

To Promote Or Not To Promote … that is the question.

At the end of 2013, Beyonce single handedly changed the marketing formula of mainstream music when she dropped her 5th studio album, Beyonce, just before the stroke of midnight with absolutely no warning.

At the time, the album was exclusively sold on iTunes. In just a three-hour sales window, “Beyonce” reportedly sold over 80,000 copies – a stark contrast to her last studio album “4” which sold 310,000 in its debut week in July of 2011. It involved a full sales week and a marketing/media push leading up to the release.

Following suit, J. Cole released his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, with more of a hybrid approach. He too ditched the normal marketing formula – announce title and release date; drop singles; conduct interviews. Instead he gave fans a release date and nothing else. “This time I’m releasing no singles, just the album. See you in 3 weeks. Thank you for the love and support.”

The album sold 354,000 copies in it first week, and debuted at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart.

Most recently Drake released the mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late just before midnight on Feb 12 to digital retailers through Young Money/Cash Money/Republic Records. It should easily debut at No. 1 next week’s Billboard 200 chart, giving Drake his fourth No. 1 with a projected half a million in sales.

So the question is do fans really love the prep time of promotion of do they prefer the full blown out marketing formula that’s tried and proven.

So we asked 125 music lovers, “Do you prefer artists to release new music without warning?” Very surprisingly, the majority of listeners preferred the tried and true.

Hmm … to that I say change is inevitable. And with Kanye’s next album on the horizon and Rihanna’s #R8 set to drop any day now with no release date looks like we’re all going to have to adapt.