Why does it still take so long for albums to be released?
TWO DOOR Cinema Club are not the first act to experience the sinking feeling that comes with discovering someone has nefariously leaked your forthcoming new album. That huge investment of time, money and creativity counts for nothing when a person takes the selfish decision to throw the album on the internet for all and sundry to download for free.
Frontman Alex Trimble issued an eloquent message to fans about it last weekend (a message which was removed the same day from his Tumblr site), but there’s a bigger issue here than appealing to fans to ignore the leak. Why do acts and labels still insist on sitting on finished albums for so long in this day and age? Details of Two Door Cinema Club’s second album, Beacon, were initially announced in June so we can assume the album was finished then. The label will argue that they need a long lead-in time to set up an all-singing, all-dancing promotional campaign, but this means there’s even more time for the album to find its way online. The more people who have advance access to an album, the more chance there is of it going rogue.
The main argument fowarded in favour of the lengthy build-up is that this is how things have always been done. But we’ve seen how sticking to the old ways has worked out for other areas of the industry. It may be time for a new approach.
It’s surprising that Two Door Cinema Club didn’t immediately release the album digitally this week to plug the leak.
They will no doubt argue that they’re adhering to long-term, well-established plans regarding the release. But in an age with finite attention spans when it comes to music, you really can’t plan for the longterm with any degree of confidence.
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[ Soundcloud.com/san-zhiOpens in new window ]
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[ Soundcloud.com/ahrenbOpens in new window ]
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