The Music Industry Announces Friday As The New Official Release Date For Albums

The times, my friends, are indeed changing once again. Our quest to find new records will now wind back by a couple of days from here on out, and the impact that this potentially has on us as consumers as well as the music industry is electrifying to say the least.

Tuesdays are starting to become less and less exciting to the point that they may now start to blur into the one day of the week that actually has a derogatory phrase equipped with it: Monday. For anyone who is a fan and a consumer of music, Tuesday was always an exciting time, as that was the global release day for that new record that one was looking forward to. It almost neutralized the knowledge that came with knowing that one was right in the thick of the work week and that the weekend was days away. Now, it seems that there’s a new reason to power through the toil and drudgery that is most of our work weeks just to make it to the weekend. The music industry has unveiled a new policy that will see new records hit stores and the digital market on Friday instead of Tuesday.

As early as a couple of days ago, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or the IFPI, officially revealed the new global release policy that will allow new records to be released on Friday instead of Tuesday. This shift may not seem like such a big deal, but this move could potentially harbor a whole slew of consequences. By switching the release day from Tuesday to Friday, it ensures that consumers will frequent stores and online retailers who are looking for the latest record release by an artist, as Fridays are typically more high-volume than Tuesdays in terms of customer traffic. The fear of the change, however, is that the move will result in more difficult “press tour” scheduling for artists, and will also cause a dramatic shift in both the production of the records and the way records are charted throughout the industry.

In the short run, the change brings an enthusiastic response, as music fans will likely have more free time to listen to the records, but in the long run, the decision by the IFPI could have dire consequences that change that way the music industry works from the studio to the retail counter. For now, we can only sit back and observe.