Can someone help me understand the marketing efforts of the recording industry. All year, we've have to discover other artists, listen to crap, etc etc. Now, it's the last quarter of the year and EVERYBODY has a freaking album coming out.

John Mayer - Kelis - Janet - The Roots -
Justin - Beyonce - Jessica - Monica - john Legend - jars of Clay
India Arie - Christina Aguilera - Audioslave - Sarah McLachlan
Jonny Lang - Evanescence - Scissor Sisters - Meatloaf - Sting

The list goes on and on. Even sweet little Clay Aiken has a disc.

Whether you like them all or not, whether you intend to buy them all or not; can someone help me to understand why now? Every week there's gonna be a new number one right?

So why does the industry do this? Can someone help me with the logic please?

I'm not sure if I would include India...didn't her album come out in June but I know what you mean.

Yeah, they put all their eggs in one basket and are hoping for a big pay day but it would have been a lot smarter to spread out the releases if possible (I think Outkast's album and movie where supposed to be out in the spring if not earlier...might be a big fuck up for all parties invovled if it fails). I think Christina was the first big pop star to release a Cd and I can't tell if her sales of over 300K are good or not because it isn't clear if that's 300K sets (which means 600-700K CDs) or if it's half as many sets and they are counting the Cds sold. 150K or so is not good for Chirstina considering everyone and their mother has been debuting at number one with a measly 100K plus. And while it's an impressive list of releases, I don't see anyone big enough to honestly lift the record industry out of this slump. Sales probably won't be all that the labels are expecting this time. They've got to really change the way things are done and fast. Artists need to develop, not canablize themselves by repeating shit!

You're right about India. But she's only on her 2nd or 3rd single. But i'm still listening to it if you know what I mean. I haven't had time to digest or get tired of it cause I'm listening to the next CD.

And these pitiful artists with 100K debuts think they are hot shit, they just happen to release on a non-competitive week.

Vinny, I guess the only way is to way until the smoke clears and see who's still in the top 10. It's just ridiuclous. I've just listened to the new John mayer CD and his CD has been ready since June, but let's wait until September to release mentality is killing me...as well as breaking my bank account. LOL.

menace said:

The waiting can really kill sales sometimes. One instance of that is the Pet Shop Boys....they waited until this summer to release their new one and I don't think it helped. It was ready in Novemeber and the buzz was huge. I think it died down after...oh, six, seven months!

As for waiting to see who is left in the top ten, I honestly see the same thing happening with these new releases as what happened over the entire year. "Big" debut and maybe a few weeks in the top ten then an evantual sink into the bottom and out of there! Yep, even Justin, Beyonce and sadly, Miss Jackson... I'd really like to see a copy of the charts and see if anyone really had any staying power this year other than "High School Musical" (which I think is done for.,...It's all about "Cheetah Girls 2"!).
[Edited 8/26/06 22:11pm]

Look i did music retail for 18 years and every year the label people would say this year we are going to spread out our releases blah blah blah. But they never did it, they always rush these records out in "record" time. There are tons not even on your list that are coming out too. The main thing is that this is the only chance the labels have to make some $$, the christmas shopping season pretty much, they tend to release in the fall because they know weather gets colder and people stay inside more and they hope that they listen to music, or at least give them as gifts. The stores and retail hate when they do this because they ship you so much you end up sending 50% back anyway. The problem this year is that there really hasnt been a solid seller, with the exception of High School the Musical and The Pussycat DOlls (which has been in the top 40 for a year now) the labels havent had a blockbuster this year, last year they had MIMI, but this year nothing, so they are banking on Justin, Beyonce , Janet etc to help pull them out, but i think everyone is in for a rude awakening.

lastdecember said:

Oh I know. There are tons that I did not even list. There are plenty of underdogs out there. Hell, maybe Bob Dylan's disc will be number one for weeks. LOL. Anything is possible right?

But so many discs also fail bcause they don't get any "air." Last year, out of all those fall records released: Toni Braxton, Madonna, Depeche Mode...who survived?

menace said:

lastdecember said:

Well that's not TRUE. They could move it. Stacie Orrico (sp?) CD was moved to 1st quarter of 2007. Her single has hit radio, I think a vid is playing, and the entire CD was leaked 2 or 3 weeks prior to the release.

Nonetheless, it's a shame. Mya has a strong CD from the tracks that I have head. But you are right, it's gonna die and be buried before the end of the year.

VinnyM27 said:

So true. I have Pet Shop because a friend told me it was out now, but I heard the buzz last year.

menace said:

I don't doubt that Bob Dylan might be a surpise seller since he is using XM to really push the disc. Sirius should take note of this synergy but they, shockingly, don't have any fancy music artists assocaited with the system besides semi-retired Eninmem,and he is barely part of that channel! I don't doubt he will debut higher than Jessica next week..Sony is doing a better job pushing his disc than hers! The single really never took off...they probably should've tried another at this point, no?

menace said:

I know I'm crazy but I bought three copies of it (two domestic, one foreign so I could hear it early) to support them. It only debuted at 150 when all of their studio albums debuted in the Top 100! And 150 this year is probably crazy low numbers, like 500 or something (well not quite but not that far off). It's fun to bitch at these record companies...screw ups (then again, it might have been PSB, as well...thought it was the label who wanted to hold it back but I'm not sure).

menace said:

In terms of sales it will probably do "Moodring" numbers which were around 600,000+, which would be a really good showing, since thats Mya's normal numbers. But i think she will gain some respect that she has never gotten in the RB community, people will be surprised at her with this record, even more than the last. Motown does have a plan to have 2-3 singles out by the time its released to hopefully get big oopening numbers, which is all labels care about, if u cant sell during weeks1-4 you are useless to them.

it is like the film industry films open on thurs and frid, at least here in Australia.

why those days? end of the week, the 3 hit theory ( marketing/advertising). you will c the ad at least 3 times on thursday/friday morn

first ad attracts u, second ad u get the info down and the third ad is a "definate yes or no"


ever c the ads that r literally played 3 times in 2 mns? one ad and then that ad, another ad then that ad , another ad then that ad

lastdecember said:

And if the follow up does sell 600K+, it would be considered a damn near blockbuster in this envroinment.

lastdecember said:

Once again the music industry is shooting itself in the foot. They are cannibalizing their own artists' sales by frontloading all of their releases at one time. In addition to that, they have raised the prices of new CDs by a dollar or more. Why do they keep doing this when they know (or at least they should know) that they are chasing a limited amount of consumers' money and time? Not only are they competing with other music releases, but they are competing against DVDs, video games, and general fall, winter and Christmas items. They have a potential goldmine with digital downloads and ringtones, so whty are they doing such a horrible marketing job? What they should be doing is getting some tracks available for digital downloading right now and rolling out tracks all through the fall so that people will want to buy the CD by Thanksgiving.

728huey said:

Well its mainly because the people at labels are college grads with degrees in Business, not Music people or anyone with a degree in music working at labels and thats really where the labels are suffering. Labels look at whats hot and they basically want a carbon copy, its the same thing in TV and in Film, basically if its hot, lets get one just like it because the public is not smart enough to wanna buy into something different. And really thats how it works. Consumers and labels are responsible for its downfall, people blame downloading from itunes, but really the only people affected by that are retailers, like Best buy,Virgin,Tower,FYE, because people arent going into the stores anymore for music, because they found this new alternative to that. I can almost guarantee that by the end of next year their will be only 1 or 2 labels left (majors that is) due to impedding mergers. And then im sure clear channel will buy it all out, so basically, all i can say is that we are about 1-2 years from the industry crashing totally, no more charts, because there will be no accurate way to account anymore, and alot of artists will either give their stuff directly to itunes and dictate how to sell it or just sell it through their own websites. But this is what happens when you let morons and greed run the show, sooner or later it catches up and you have to start all over again.
To make an even better point lets take Elton John, hes got this club called ROCKET, basically named after his label, well its like NPG, but i think it was 75 dollars for a membership( i think i could be wrong) but you get tons of stuff, already he has given out 4 tracks from his new cd, also in the past has given out dvds of shows, so if he got 100,000 people to sign up which wouldnt be too hard he would make 7.5 million, just using him as an example but really why use a label anymore. Another good example would be this model Vida Guerra, about 6 years ago this girl working as a secretary in a real estate office and now last year grossed about 3 million just off her website and this year is looking to double it .
[Edited 8/27/06 22:34pm]

Sometimes it's a good thing when albums get bumped to the new year.

The Fall is way too competitive!

I'm actually glad that some of my most anticipated releases are coming in 2007:

Maxwell
Duran Duran
The B-52's
Cher?
Whitney?