Following the success of the simultaneous radio/iTunes release of Britney Spears‘ new single ‘Hold It Against Me’, arch rivals Sony Music and Universal Music have teamed up for a revolutionary new release strategy. A strategy which industry pundits claim will change the scope of the charts in a way not seen since downloads officially contributed to chart placings.

Full story after the jump…

Via the UK’s ‘Guardian‘:

Ten years after piracy first began to ravage the music industry, Britain’s two biggest record labels will finally try to play their part in stopping it, by making new singles available for sale on the day they first hit the airwaves.

Universal and Sony Music – home to Take That and Matt Cardle, respectively – hope the effort will encourage the impatient X Factor generation to buy songs they can listen to immediately rather than copying from radio broadcasts online.

David Joseph, the chief executive of Universal Music, said: “Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation. It’s out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance.”

Songs used to receive up to six weeks radio airplay before they were released for sale – a practice known as “setting up” a record. But the success of selling the winner’s single immediately after the X Factor final has made record bosses think again.

“What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored of – or had already pirated – new singles,” Joseph added.

Sony, which will start the “on air, on sale” policy simultaneously with Universal next month, agreed that the old approach was no longer relevant in an age where, according to a spokesman for the music major, “people want instant gratification”.

Cardle, who signed to Sony via an agreement with Simon Cowell, sold 439,000 copies of When we Collide when it made the Christmas number one, the track having gone on sale just as the X Factor final ended on television.

Industry insiders believe instant sales will make it easier for records to climb the charts as excitement about a new song builds, developing a trend first seen when download sales joined the mainstream.

In the past, heavy pre-release marketing had tended to mean a new single crash-landed at its peak position on its first week of release – making the top 40 a dull narrative of short-lived new entries leavened by falling songs and fading glamour.

Jessie J’s Do it Like a Dude went on sale and on radio at the beginning of December, and the 22-year-old’s R&B single climbed steadily to reach number 5 last week. As more singles follow suit, the charts will briefly become uneven as songs adopting the old and the new marketing policies mix.

Piracy remains a crippling problem for the British music business, where the overall market fell by nearly 6% in 2010 and album sales slumped 7%, despite the success surrounding Robbie Williams’s rejoining Take That and Simon Cowell’s television-fuelled hits factory.

While set to impact the British charts first, it’s no doubt only a matter of time before the US and other major territories follow suit – and just as good. For too long, whatless label execs have prevented many a great song from reaching its full chart potential due to ridiculous gaps between a single’s radio release and digital/physical availability.

That said, it will be particularly interesting to see how marketing and promotional strategies adapt to this new model. For now, it appears everything from videos, television performances, radio tours, and the like, will have to be ‘in place’ and ready to deploy ahead of (or not long after) a song’s on-air premiere and parallell iTunes availability.

Looked at this way, the new strategy provides great opportunity for the autonomous success of non A-List acts, who enjoy great initial radio play (yet not much else due to a previous lack of label backing). Still, the new model also leaves plenty room for labels to continue to drop the ball (if the above-mentioned ’essentials’ aren’t in place), as well as provide a fertile breeding ground for more talentless ‘digital acts’. One can only hope the former is the true success story to emerge from this, as opposed to the latter.

HAPPYPERSON said:

Following the success of the simultaneous radio/iTunes release of Britney Spears‘ new single ‘Hold It Against Me’, arch rivals Sony Music and Universal Music have teamed up for a revolutionary new release strategy. A strategy which industry pundits claim will change the scope of the charts in a way not seen since downloads officially contributed to chart placings.

Full story after the jump…

Via the UK’s ‘Guardian‘:

Ten years after piracy first began to ravage the music industry, Britain’s two biggest record labels will finally try to play their part in stopping it, by making new singles available for sale on the day they first hit the airwaves.

Universal and Sony Music – home to Take That and Matt Cardle, respectively – hope the effort will encourage the impatient X Factor generation to buy songs they can listen to immediately rather than copying from radio broadcasts online.

David Joseph, the chief executive of Universal Music, said: “Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation. It’s out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance.”

Songs used to receive up to six weeks radio airplay before they were released for sale – a practice known as “setting up” a record. But the success of selling the winner’s single immediately after the X Factor final has made record bosses think again.

“What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored of – or had already pirated – new singles,” Joseph added.

Sony, which will start the “on air, on sale” policy simultaneously with Universal next month, agreed that the old approach was no longer relevant in an age where, according to a spokesman for the music major, “people want instant gratification”.

Cardle, who signed to Sony via an agreement with Simon Cowell, sold 439,000 copies of When we Collide when it made the Christmas number one, the track having gone on sale just as the X Factor final ended on television.

Industry insiders believe instant sales will make it easier for records to climb the charts as excitement about a new song builds, developing a trend first seen when download sales joined the mainstream.

In the past, heavy pre-release marketing had tended to mean a new single crash-landed at its peak position on its first week of release – making the top 40 a dull narrative of short-lived new entries leavened by falling songs and fading glamour.

Jessie J’s Do it Like a Dude went on sale and on radio at the beginning of December, and the 22-year-old’s R&B single climbed steadily to reach number 5 last week. As more singles follow suit, the charts will briefly become uneven as songs adopting the old and the new marketing policies mix.

Piracy remains a crippling problem for the British music business, where the overall market fell by nearly 6% in 2010 and album sales slumped 7%, despite the success surrounding Robbie Williams’s rejoining Take That and Simon Cowell’s television-fuelled hits factory.

While set to impact the British charts first, it’s no doubt only a matter of time before the US and other major territories follow suit – and just as good. For too long, whatless label execs have prevented many a great song from reaching its full chart potential due to ridiculous gaps between a single’s radio release and digital/physical availability.

That said, it will be particularly interesting to see how marketing and promotional strategies adapt to this new model. For now, it appears everything from videos, television performances, radio tours, and the like, will have to be ‘in place’ and ready to deploy ahead of (or not long after) a song’s on-air premiere and parallell iTunes availability.

Looked at this way, the new strategy provides great opportunity for the autonomous success of non A-List acts, who enjoy great initial radio play (yet not much else due to a previous lack of label backing). Still, the new model also leaves plenty room for labels to continue to drop the ball (if the above-mentioned ’essentials’ aren’t in place), as well as provide a fertile breeding ground for more talentless ‘digital acts’. One can only hope the former is the true success story to emerge from this, as opposed to the latter.

Well this is way way late, street dates should have been done away with about a decade ago at least, once the leaks started, which most of the time come from the artist's own camps, the street date should have been done away with. If its ready put the shit out, no more of this send it to radio for 4 months and see how it does, whats the point of that? test the waters? Shit i got 1000's of tracks by artists "testing" the fucking waters, so i say screw it, u got a song, dump it on iTunes, it costs shit to do, so do it already.

Doesn't mean anything to me, because I don't download or listen to the radio. If I do happen to turn the radio, it's only oldies or jazz.

So? Just because some artists can sell that well don't mean everyone and their mama will accomplish that. Fuck out of here.

[Edited 1/17/11 16:44pm]

Timmy84 said:

So? Just because some artists can sell that well don't mean everyone and their mama will accomplish that. Fuck out of here.

[Edited 1/17/11 16:44pm]

Well i dont think that its about how will sell and who wont, i think its more about squeezing what they can out of the sales and closing the doors on leaks and the waste of tracks laying out there for months with no purchase chance only an illegal file. I mean Kelly Rowland already has 9 tracks from her not released yet album on the net? and i think 2 can be bought? whats the point of leaking these tracks, testing the waters is moronic in this day and age, to me, if its ready its ready, put it the fuck out, im tired of hearing "its not time, it might not sell now" shit, nothing sells now so what the hell is difference. Just throw it all out there, dont promote any of it, and see what happens

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

So? Just because some artists can sell that well don't mean everyone and their mama will accomplish that. Fuck out of here.

[Edited 1/17/11 16:44pm]

Well i dont think that its about how will sell and who wont, i think its more about squeezing what they can out of the sales and closing the doors on leaks and the waste of tracks laying out there for months with no purchase chance only an illegal file. I mean Kelly Rowland already has 9 tracks from her not released yet album on the net? and i think 2 can be bought? whats the point of leaking these tracks, testing the waters is moronic in this day and age, to me, if its ready its ready, put it the fuck out, im tired of hearing "its not time, it might not sell now" shit, nothing sells now so what the hell is difference. Just throw it all out there, dont promote any of it, and see what happens

Like I said it's whatever. Now they wanna think about marketing strategies!

I no longer go on Billboard.com to check out the Billboard Hot 100 or any of the other radio charts because of how much radio has changed. The whole I-Tunes system is screwed up. It used to be about airplay, but now it's all about how many downloads you sell which guarantees you a certain spot on the charts.

PurpleReign30 said:

I no longer go on Billboard.com to check out the Billboard Hot 100 or any of the other radio charts because of how much radio has changed. The whole I-Tunes system is screwed up. It used to be about airplay, but now it's all about how many downloads you sell which guarantees you a certain spot on the charts.

Before Soundscan, chart positions were based on both sales of 45rpm singles and airplay.

WOW! It's 2011 and the geniuses running the music industry just realised it might be profitable to make the music on the radio available for immediate purchase. Hopeless. Just hopeless. Did they alllll take the short bus to school?

i always just forget radio exists really. i haven't listened to radio for music in ages. i listen to news radio in the car, or i plug in my ipod. i get my music online and my music information online. i imagine its the same for alot of people. i'm certainly not going to sit around and listen to the radio waiting for a particular song to come on. i did that when i was a kid, lol. not when you can click a few buttons, buy the song, listen immediately.

this makes too much sense. no wonder its taken so long for the music industry to figure it out; probably because of resistance from the giant corporations that run all the radio stations.

NoVideo said:

i always just forget radio exists really. i haven't listened to radio for music in ages. i listen to news radio in the car, or i plug in my ipod. i get my music online and my music information online. i imagine its the same for alot of people. i'm certainly not going to sit around and listen to the radio waiting for a particular song to come on. i did that when i was a kid, lol. not when you can click a few buttons, buy the song, listen immediately.

this makes too much sense. no wonder its taken so long for the music industry to figure it out; probably because of resistance from the giant corporations that run all the radio stations.

I agree, in another Britney Spears thread on this forum people were talking about "Radio Spins" like this was 1975 again, that shit doesnt matter anymore, if we all agreee that the business models and ways of doing things are gone, why are we still even talking about "radio". ???

Next what im talking about its tear this whole frame of street dates nonsense and promo down, labels, if so concerned shouldnt spend a dime, let the artist market themselves for bigger cuts but give them the benefit of distribution and ownerships. Im tired of hearing about artists "pushing" back albums, delaying shit, this that the other, leaking a track then dropping out of sight, u got something sell the fucking thing!! It was this way with Stevie Wonder' s last album, they actually were delaying because he wanted to move units??? Really?? Stevie actually was caring about that??? i prayed that was a lie, but it was true

PurpleReign30 said:

I no longer go on Billboard.com to check out the Billboard Hot 100 or any of the other radio charts because of how much radio has changed. The whole I-Tunes system is screwed up. It used to be about airplay, but now it's all about how many downloads you sell which guarantees you a certain spot on the charts.

surely a better indicator of a song's popularity has to be the number of people willing to buy it rather than somebody letting a board room full of Clear Channel executives partake in a bukkake gang-bang to get it on hundreds of radio stations.