With the media still a-buzz about U2โs sudden release of โSongs of Innocenceโ in conjunction with the announcement of Appleโs iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+, it seems as though the โsurprise albumโ is becoming a growing industry trend.ย
In July 2013, Jay Z announced the imminent release of his newest album via a Samsung commercial that ran during an NBA Finals game. Beyoncรฉ followed her husband’s example when she released a self-titled surprise album to iTunes at the end of the year. Other artists, such as David Bowie, Wolfmother, Radiohead and most recently Thom Yorke, have also surprised fans with unannounced albums in recent years.
Despite varied methods of release (e.g., Jay Z collaborated with Samsung while Skrillex released his album though his free Alien Ride phone app), one thing is constant: consumers’ reactions to unanticipated new music are unpredictable. โBeyoncรฉโ outsold its predecessor, โ4,โ in just four weeks, but not every artist has Queen Bey’s fan base.
So how successful is a surprise releaseโs limited marketing efforts over a traditional album release? Does the publicity around a surprise launchโsometimes through a single retailerโoutweigh weeks of advance publicity for a widely distributed traditional release? Does a surprise album become less surprising when everyone is doing it?
Itโs still the early days for Thom Yorkeโs and U2โs respective releases, but we compared Beyoncรฉโs album to three other โsurpriseโ albums from well-known artists that followed (as well as the Jay Z album that preceded) to see how they measured up. While other promotional factors may be at play, and other metrics can define success (ticket sales, social media, etc.), we wanted to compare the initial four weeks of sales of a surprise album to each artist’s previous album. We also compared both to the top-selling album and streams to date as an overall measure of each artistโs success.
