A #1 Album That Changes the Game

There’s no question about it: streaming is important in the music world. First, we had Rihanna’s Anti be exclusively released on Tidal, a music streaming service. But now, Kanye West has followed the same path. The only difference with Kanye’s scenario is that him and his team did not release official numbers to Nielsen SoundScan, a sales tracking system used by Billboard. Ultimately, this decision made The Life of Pablo unable to chart on official charts before April 1.

Artists aim to have the number one album in America. A number one album means that people are hearing the content artists have been working on for a long time. It’s a position that screams “the hottest album AND artist in the industry.” The Life of Pablo was released on February 14 and was only available for streaming on Tidal. On April 1, the album was made available on other streaming services, such as Google Play, Apple Music, and Spotify. It was also made available for purchase for the first time on kanyewest.com. Between February 14 and April 1, no official statistics were provided to Nielsen SoundScan about the performance of the album. After making the album available for purchase, The Life of Pablo debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Not many people were shocked because it was expected due to the amount of buzz the album and Kanye made online.

It is important to point out that Kanye’s album is the first number one album to achieve such accomplishment with the majority of its copies being streamed and not sold. Out of the 94,000 equivalent copies, only 28,000 copies were bought. During its second and third weeks, the album sold 1,000 and 78 copies, respectively. In addition, it is estimated that over 500,000 copies were illegally downloaded. Again, streaming has become a key component of sales and Kanye’s album proves it. Although the numbers have been surprising, Kanye is still to embark on a tour and there’s nothing stopping his power.

What do you think? Should artists keep releasing “exclusive” albums?

Go Back In Time?

From the point of view of an artist, it’s satisfying seeing your songs succeed in the American market, one of the biggest ones in the world. From the point of view of a hardcore fan, it’s exciting seeing them receive exposure because that means that you’ll be hearing them more often on the radio. But what if the song was released eight years ago?

This is the scenario that Empire of the Sun, an Australian electronic music duo, is experiencing. Their song “Walking on a Dream,” released in 2008, recently charted on the Billboard 100 chart for the first time ever. To be more specific, it peaked at position number sixty-five on the Billboard 100 and number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs. It’s interesting to analyze this scenario because of multiple events that have happened. The first one is being that the duo has moved on to new musical content since 2008. They have released one album and seven other singles since then. I would expect for artists to move on from past content since people mature, grow, and learn more through experiences. It’s more common to see more recent songs succeed and chart nationwide.

Another event to look at is the reason why the song is now getting the exposure it deserves. Every year, marketers latch onto the attention the Superbowl receives to promote their brand and products. Honda, a car manufacturing company, used “Walking on a Dream” to promote their Civic line. This proves one thing: marketing and music can make memorable things together if they work together to enable customers to feel, hear, and see the magic!