Spotify now has over 182 million subscribers and roughly 400 million users. And it is merely one of many music streaming services. The click of a button beauty of such apps has made it the favoured listening approach of music fans. However, one of the many nettlesome elements that have come to the fore is how the instant nature of streaming has subsumed modern music.
In the past, you’d read all the press about your favourite band’s forthcoming record. You’d tune into the radio to hear the launch of a brand-new single. A second track from the album would likely follow. You’d mark the date of release down on your calendar. Then the day would finally come and you’d make your way down to the record store, pick up your copy, rush home, pop the kettle on or open a beer, and plunge the needle down into that hiss that sounds like an orchestra tuning up, before the moment of truth arrived.
You don’t have that same spiritual moment these days when you just casually flick open an app and go, ‘Oh, there’s a new Courtney Barnett album available, I might listen to that later on’. Streaming has created a sense of malaise around album releases. These days, most labels drip feed four singles over four months for algorithmic placement, therefore, when the album arrives you’ve already heard nearly half of it and the fanfare is fizzled out further by the fact that all you have to do is make a click.
However, of course, you still want your music to reach as many people as possible and there’s a beauty to the ease and availability of streaming too. Thus, it’s a beast that you have to lay with and many artists have figured out ways to keep the spice and spark of a release alive without succumbing to the drab snare of streaming.
Five innovative ways artists have released new music:
Jake Bugg
Perhaps inspired by Beck’s sheet music album, Jake Bugg took a brilliantly innovative approach with his 2021 single ‘Lost’. As he announced in a tweet: “Before you hear it, I wanted to share the full chord sheet for the song to see what you can make of it. Upload your versions and tag me in them, I’ll be picking out some of the closest ones.”
This gave his fans a chance to literally interact with the release and ‘Lost’ spawned a thousand other songs. What’s more, if you went as far as to submit your own version, there’s no way you wouldn’t be immediately tuning in on release day to check out how close you were to his melody, ensuring it ticked the boxes of effective promotion, exciting innovation, and the hubbub of fanfare.
The Wedding Present
In 1992, The Wedding Present emerged from the shadows of the C86 scene with a historic run of singles. That year, they had 12 tracks charting, one for each month, a feat which tied with the one and only Elvis Presley for the most top 40 hits in a single year. The difference between the two is that The Wedding Present were borne from the cottage-industry ethos of punk, whereas Elvis had the first army of the music industry behind him as the wheels got turning on pop culture.
This year, the group marked that achievement 30 years on with their latest project. 24 Songs provides a 7” double-sided single for fans every month throughout 2022. And frontman David Gedge told us, We’re doing this because I like 7” singles – it’s the ultimate format for pop music – and also record shops… and I’ve always been fond of a collectable series myself!” Aside from the tunes, the method of release certainly brings back that punk feeling and engagement with releases back to life.
Kanye West
In a strange way, Kanye West’s launch of Donda almost proves how you can go too far focusing on the launch of the album itself. West was so desperate to avoid the subsummation of simply releasing yet another album into the ether of a million others that he created a chaotic concert centred around gathering a slew of ‘cancelled’ stars on stage with him. These included Marilyn Manson who is currently facing court proceedings regarding rape allegations and DaBaby, who at the time was facing backlash after making homophobic remarks. At best, the philosophy behind this artistic gesture is confused and misguided, at worst it is purposefully damaging.
While the argument that presidential candidate Kanye West was trying to make is indecipherable owing to an unclear mantra on his part, the intent was about as subtle as a policeman’s knock. Controversy generates attention like no other engine of interest and cramming a show full of talking points was a platform to prove this. Naturally, any release by West would attract media attention, but it would be naïve to think that any artist believes themselves to be infallible from fading. Albeit this effort might have been nettlesome, a more judicious concert launch concept could go down a storm.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
The live music industry is also something that has encountered roadblocks in recent times. The whys and wherefores are a complex web, but Godspeed You! Black Emperor ingeniously conjured up a clever way to promote a new album and show in one fell swoop.
When fans went to their 2012 tour, they were greeted with the curious sight of unknown artwork on the merch stand. This mystic vinyl was actually Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Descend! The band simply popped their first new record for ten years on sale at live shows without any mention of what lay therein. It was released officially later that year, however, these live show copies added a sense of exclusivity and excitement not only to the record but also to the gigs themselves.
Solange
While her sister Beyoncé seemingly goes down the anti-innovation route and just drops whole albums on streaming services without any singles or marketing beforehand, Solange went the opposite way with the launch of When I Get Home.
The promotion for the record included a website takeover complete with a visual video experience. There was sagacious intent behind it too—the website in question was a relaunch of the old MySpace-styled website, Black Planet, which back in 1999, looked to give black people a creative arena online. The site functioned as an all-purpose blog space for Solange to dump anything pertinent to her creative output on there and interact with fans via a Q&A section. This was not only a launch that captured the inherent buzz of innovation but also illuminated important disparities in the process.
Follow Far Out Magazine across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.