The Game changer… only a week ago Beyoncé released an album on iTunes with absolute no preface that a new album was coming. She sent one simple social media message and the world went into pop-crazed ‘Yoncé’ frenzy.
Within 24 hours Beyoncé had hit the top of the album chart on iTunes and the twitter-sphere went bangarang generating over 1.2 million Tweets in 12 hours, and in less than 24 hours, mentions of the singing superstar spiked by 500,000+ tweets.
For 2013 some of the world’s biggest pop acts dropped albums and they made sure everyone knew about it. Katy Perry let the world know about her album P.R.I.S.M with a gold plated truck whilst Lady Gaga dropped a cool 25 Million on her marketing campaign in the lead up to the release!
You can spend weeks, months and even years trying to build that brand, teasing out the release with slow-dripped singles and making sure your fanbase stays onside throughout the process! What we can now see however, is that a strong relationship with your fanbase can supercede even the most calculated PR campaign. Beyoncé has been reinforcing that same artist to fan relationship since her early days in Destiny Child’s the fact she sold over half a million records last week is testament not only to that relationship but also to her raw, unadulterated talent. I’ve seen hipster loyalists touting this new Beyoncé release because she appears to be one of the few popstars to transcend genre boundaries. You need only compare her first week of sales to those of ‘The Big Three’ with Katy Perry’s PRISM moving 286,000, Miley’s Bangerz 270,000 and GAGA’s Artpop 258,000. The one star that seems to be eclipsing all else at the moment is Taylor Swift who thundered the other 3 with 1.2 million out the gates but we won’t mention that.
The album Beyoncé features 14 brand new tracks, including new singles ‘XO’ and 'Drunk in Love’. The bundle also contained 17 new music videos, as well as various featurette content. The album see Bey collabing with Drake, Frank Ocean, Jay Z and Baby Blu and as a whole is a collection of articulate, thematically linked music. It trafficks specifically in the lost arts of sequencing, pacing, and mastering and intersperses a few key bangers such as Pretty Hurts, Mine and Flawless. With the album featuring 17 videos, Beyoncé has given her fans more than just a great tune she has given them a visual insight, a journey into her life and her why she creates her music.
-Em W
