Why Are New Albums Released on Tuesdays

[kim]

Ive asked this question before at a site which name escapes me at the moment...

I don't recall getting any kind of definitive answer so I pursued this topic again and came up with this short, yet informative answer. For anyone that may be interested...here it is.

"According to features editor Mike Pearson, albums are released on Tuesdays because sales figures for albums are released on Mondays. While films are ranked according to weekend sales figures, the billboard charts are determined according to weekly sales. Thus, in order to maximize their sales potential, albums have to be released immediately after the posting of the previous week's sales figures."

Sounds good to me I guess?

Thanks
Kim

[nightrocker]

Bottom line it is all about Money!

[Scott]

I've often contemplated this........


Seems to me, that it would be better to release albums on Friday...since that is payday for most people. I get paid on Friday...and I'm freakin' broke by the next Tuesday.



And along the same lines....why do Japanese releases always contain an extra couple of tracks? Is their money better than ours? I feel like I'm getting ripped-off because I live in the USA. What makes the Japanese so special?

[Jesse]

scott said:

And along the same lines....why do Japanese releases always contain an extra couple of tracks? Is their money better than ours? I feel like I'm getting ripped-off because I live in the USA. What makes the Japanese so special?

....and European releases are usually released on a Monday. And sometimes several weeks BEFORE the US release date.

[FunkyCanuck]

scott said:

And along the same lines....why do Japanese releases always contain an extra couple of tracks? Is their money better than ours? I feel like I'm getting ripped-off because I live in the USA. What makes the Japanese so special?

Y'know, I always wondered that too and I came across this when I was over at the Realms of Death one day:

Why are there always bonus tracks on the Japanese editions of Megadeth albums?

"The reason for this is that in Japan, you can rent a CD, take it home and completely record it before returning it. This happened about 8-10 years ago and has crippled the Japanese music industry. In fact the overall sales for Japan went down 30% for the entire country in all. The bonus track is to induce the Japanese fan to buy Japanese product and thereby support commerce in their country. I have found that it doesn't really matter anyway, because the die hard fans get it no matter where they live or no matter where it comes from." (Mustaine, 2001)

Uhh, but I'm not sure how that would help. Perhaps I'm reading this wrong? If they can take it home and record it, wouldn't they get the bonus track anyway? I guess the bonus track isn't available on the rental?? Okay, I just confused myself.

Ohh, almost forgot. Seeing how we're on music questions, what do they mean by "arrangements"? I always see on liner notes: songs arranged by blah blah. What does this all entail?

[HARD ROCK UNIVERSE]

scott said:

I've often contemplated this........


Seems to me, that it would be better to release albums on Friday...since that is payday for most people. I get paid on Friday...and I'm freakin' broke by the next Tuesday.



And along the same lines....why do Japanese releases always contain an extra couple of tracks? Is their money better than ours? I feel like I'm getting ripped-off because I live in the USA. What makes the Japanese so special?

Actually the reason that Japanese releases contain bonus tracks that are exclusive to the Japanese market is so that Japanese consumers won't go and buy American releases of albums, which end up costing less than their Japanese counterparts, and it takes away from the Japanese marketshare .

[renegade]

funkycanuck said:

scott said:

Ohh, almost forgot. Seeing how we're on music questions, what do they mean by "arrangements"? I always see on liner notes: songs arranged by blah blah. What does this all entail?

could be another word for mixing...like which songs were put in what spot on the album, track one is this, track two is that, track three is this, etc.

[rikki]

Retailers were complaining about other record retailers being able to put the new stock out before others, this became a hugh complaint weekly and the distributers were being ragged on about why certain stores were getting their shipments on time and others weren't. This had to end so the music indrustry set up a certain day ( the slowest sales day ) that most new releases would come out on with the exception of Friday, which is considered "late". All agreed and it was changed to tuesdays weekly.

This started because record chains were getting new releases before the mom & pops stores.

I remember answering this for you Kim on the CRR forum.
I was a manager for a record store when this new release tuesday came about.

[Jesse]

Ohh, almost forgot. Seeing how we're on music questions, what do they mean by "arrangements"? I always see on liner notes: songs arranged by blah blah. What does this all entail?

Arrangement is how the song is played. Songs have their riffs, chord progressions, lyrics, solo, slow parts, fast parts, etc. What order they come in and how they are played is the arrangement. Best example I can think of right now is "Layla" is which Eric Clapton re-released the song in the '90's with an acoustic arrangement. Same song, just played differently, i.e. he changed the arrangement.

[kim]

Thanks Picklehead.

It obviously slipped my mind and when I saw this response in a news item, thought I'd post it.

A lot of that happening lately...not retaining enough info...could be the onset of Alz...uhmm...?? what the f**k was I talkin' about?...where's my friggn' teeth???...who put them under there!!!...Yes...it is a lovely day and why yes I'd love another drink.

Thanks
Kim