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Business News Labels & Publishers Retail
Friday confirmed as global release day
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 26 February 2015
So, as expected, the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has announced that Friday will become the global release day for new music as of later this year.
As previously reported, there is consensus across the music industry that, in the digital age, it is impractical to have new releases going live on different days in different countries. However, there has been quite a bit of disagreement over what day should be adopted worldwide for new recorded output.
The IFPI quickly came out in favour of Friday, currently used in only a small number of markets, most notably Australia. But there has been plenty of dissent from indies and some in the retail sector, who say that bringing out new records on Friday means the record industry loses its double spike, ie a spike in sales when new releases come out early in the week, and then the customary spike that comes at the weekend.
But, when confirming that Friday would be adopted as a worldwide release day this morning, the IFPI said that the decision had been made “following consultation with artists, musicians unions, record companies and retailers”, though Beggars Group boss Martin Mills said earlier this week that he feared that process had been a “charade”, with the majors having decided on Friday from the outset.
The switch to Fridays will begin this summer, with singles and albums going live at one minute past midnight local time in each market. It remains to be seen how the dissenters react to this morning’s confirmation, and also what the shift will mean for the charts in those countries which currently have early-in-the-week release days.
