Beyonce Surprise Album.Genuis or Risky?

beyone surprise album

Happy new year readers!!! By now we have all heard the new Beyoncé album that was surprisingly released on December 13 of last year via ITunes. This article is not about the album itself but more about how it was released. It has been said that in order for this album to be released in such secrecy that only a select few people even knew the release date (which wasn’t confirmed until a week before December 13th). Along with the album there was a  “visuals album” also released via iTunes, that included a video for each of the 14 songs on the album. In the wake of the album and videos release, the album sold over 600K copies in 3 days and generated over  1 million tweets in 12 hours after its release.  It is simply incredible that an album of such high quality production and magnitude was able to release so discretely in todays age of camera phones and social media. With the 14 videos shot for this album around the world it’s also shocking that nobody outside of the production crew managed to catch a glimpse or a picture of  Beyoncé and spread it all over the internet.

(Drunk In Love)

With all that said the question is; was this unorthodox strategy for releasing an album a smart business move? …I believe that it truly was a stroke of genius in many ways. By releasing this album via ITunes she saves a ton of money by cutting out an expensive marketing campaign.  Also, when an album is released through a major retailer (Target) we all know that they take a major cut from the artists earnings and Beyoncé avoided that financial hit with the albums initial release. This strategy of surprise release can also be seen a major milestone for  Beyonce’s Career. A milestone in the sense that Beyoncé has reached a level of fame so high that she is able to release an album without an expensive marketing campaign and still sell over 600K copies in 3 days. This also goes to prove the power of social media can sometimes be more effective at creating buzz then a high priced marketing campaign…Let me know your thoughts

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