Anyone who's either read my
Music 3.0 Internet Music Guidebook or has been reading my blog for a while know that I've advocated
a new release schedule where there are more single releases on a timely basis instead of waiting until 10 songs are finished then releasing an album.
There are 3 reasons for using this strategy:
1. We now live in a singles world. The majority of people, especially those under 35, now consume their music a song at a time. That's how they like it, so there's no use fighting it.
2. Releasing 10 singles actually gives you 11 events to promote, not just one. You can promote each single as a separate event, then put them all together for an album release, which is the 11th. Which do you think gets the artist more exposure?
3. And maybe even more importantly, releasing just a single focuses the fan's attention on just one song at a time, instead of picking out only 1 or 2 from an album and listening to just those (which is what usually happens).
Now
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are taking a page from the
Music 3.0 notebook and releasing a song a month for the next 9 months beginning on August 14. This is on the back of their new album
I'm With You, which has already been released.
It seems that the band recorded 50 songs for I'm With You, and didn't want to wait for the normal album cycle in order to put the songs out that were left off the record.
Each single offers a number of value-added items to each release.
Each song will be released on both vinyl and digital, and each single will contain a different piece of artwork that will only be complete with the purchase of all 9 singles.
It's pretty obvious that release times between records are shortening, but The Chili Peppers move signals the new Music 3.0 release reality is finally here.
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