Music industry mulls a global music release date, because apparently they can do that?

Music industry mulls a global music release date, because apparently they can do that?

Regardless of context, who says a few days doesn’t make a difference? Outside of a select few individuals who weirdly operate on a 168-hour clock, confusing the hell out of post offices with demands that they stop delivering Chinese restaurant menus multiple times per “day,” many people would agree that a lot can be accomplished in the span of a week. Folks in the upper echelon of the music industry, for instance, apparently believe that they can disrupt piracy by having Friday be the standard album global release day — thus moving the UK from its regular Monday and the US from its seemingly absurd Tuesday (while Australia’s would stay the same). What’s the rationale behind this crazy notion, and what impact will it have on your Friday mouth-foaming in anticipation of the weekend?

Well, concerning the latter, probably nothing if you’re a rabid consumer of music. If I ever did, it’s been a long time since I paid particular attention to exact release dates, but I’m not who the monolithic “music industry” is counting on. They’re thinking of listeners who buy a select few albums per year, and whose attention spans dwindle at the sight of shiny cars and numbing agents/MTV episodes.

So the theory goes, if Friday is the agreed-upon date for music releases worldwide, the Ozzies won’t have the chance to preempt purchases with pirating in the few intervening days before an album is released in the UK, the US, and elsewhere. In other words, people inclined to pirate supposedly won’t pirate as much if they don’t have to wait an extra three or four days. I’m sure hoping there’s some research to back this up, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this amounts to a trivial difference in numbers.

So this doesn’t matter, but if you think it does, wait until July 2015. If the RIAA, the IFPI, and all the major labels end up solidifying things, that’s when the global release date will take effect.

Most Read



Etc.