TGIF? Music industry nervously shifts album release day from Tuesday to Friday

By Nick Patch, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – With all due respect to the Cure, the Canadian music industry is not yet unanimously in love with Friday as the new launching pad for record releases.

As of last week, the music industry initiated a worldwide shift toward pushing out almost all new albums on Fridays, upending the previous North American standard of releasing new tunes on Tuesdays.

Officially, industry execs are touting the globally synchronized release date as a tonic for piracy, an opportunity for internationally co-ordinated marketing, and a chance to stimulate sales with free-spending weekend whimsy.

“Friday has been chosen because our consumer research — which was conducted in eight international markets — showed that that’s the day when consumers overwhelmingly wanted to see music released,” said Music Canada president Graham Henderson in a telephone interview.

“Friday is the day when consumers have more opportunity for shopping in store. They’ve got more time for going online. It’s also the time for greatest activity on social media, which helps amplify the buzz.

“Tuesday is just kind of a relic of the past.”

Privately, however, reaction in the industry seems to range from ambivalence to anxiety. (And many in North America simply resent conforming to international standards, given how much culture is churned out here.)

A rather low-wattage slate of offerings last week makes it difficult to analyze the immediate effects of the change, and this week — perhaps headlined by Tame Impala’s stardust-touched “Currents” — isn’t a much better industry barometer.

Nielsen Entertainment’s senior vice-president of industry insights David Bakula says that until a blockbuster release is issued on a Friday, it will be tough to fairly analyze the shift.

Until then, he can only hypothesize on a range of possible outcomes.

On the positive side, he suggests that physical retailers could benefit from weekend shoppers, flush with disposable income. Optimists could also take comfort in the fact that, as Bakula notes, release dates seem to hold less weight in the digital age.

Further, many in the industry hope that the shift will stop the illegal leaks of records with earlier release dates in international markets.

Still, Bakula also warns of several potential issues.

He notes that audio streaming has typically peaked on Tuesdays and generally is higher during the week, perhaps when office workers pop in earphones and fritter away the day.

He also points out that the former roll-out strategy used to incite a sales spike on Tuesday, followed by a secondary peak on the weekend.

Now, sales might be front-loaded to the weekend and shiny new releases could gather rust even faster.

“That’s the thing that will concern me and make me take some pause on whether this is good or not,” said Bakula in a telephone interview.

“Yeah, we definitely moved more sales in the first couple days — but when it comes to the life of the record … are you now getting all your attention packed into the first three days? And are we going to make records burn out even faster now?”

Until there’s concrete evidence of the Friday shift’s effect on sales, it’s difficult to find a musician who will admit to caring.

Mac DeMarco’s upcoming EP “Another One” will be released on Aug. 7, which is, of course, a Friday.

When asked about it, the Edmonton native dismissively referred to the move as “some big industry plan.”

“I was never the kind of kid to really wait for an album to drop,” explained the Juno-nominated laconic-rock troubadour.

“Tuesday, Friday, what’s the difference? To me, I don’t even know what day of the week it is.”

Follow @CP_Patch on Twitter.

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