Releasing a single for digital download before an album’s debut is about as standard these days as making it available to radio.
But in the past few months, labels and artists have begun releasing multiple tracks in advance of an album’s street date to promote new releases, relying in no small degree on Apple’s iTunes Music Store’s Complete My Album feature to convert them into full-album sales — in some cases with striking effectiveness.
Take Lil Wayne’s smash hit “Tha Carter III.” In a rare move, Universal Motown made six songs available for download in the months prior to the album’s release, a full one-third of the 18 tracks included on the final iTunes version of the album.
Despite the entire album’s being leaked online just weeks before its availability, “Tha Carter III” racked up first-week sales of more than 1 million. What’s more, 10 percent of the album’s sales were digital, up from less than 1 percent for Wayne’s past titles. And the most eyebrow-raising statistic? Fifty-two percent of the album’s sales on iTunes came through Apple’s Complete My Album function.
Sun, Jun 29, 2008
News