COMMENTARY | Music industry insiders are still critiquing the way Beyoncé released her fifth self-titled album on the iTunes Store without any prior promotion, and now they're speculating that Adele will release her third album the same way - with no set release date or media coverage.
If Adele decides to release her new album just like Beyoncé's "visual album," she'll still move more copies in a day than most musical acts do in their entire careers. The anticipation for the British singer's new work will be so enormous, there is really no bad way she can release it to her loyal fan base. They'll buy her third effort the moment they find out it's available.
"21" is one of the biggest selling albums of all-time. Beyoncé, she's sold her share of albums, but nothing in the "21" stratosphere range. On Tuesday, "21" just became the first album to sell more than three million digital copies.
Adele's biggest challenge for her next album will not be how she releases it, but more can she live up to the huge expectations after having such worldwide success, critically and commercially.
"21" will be hard to top, but even fair-weather Adele fans will buy her next album just to hear if she comes close to the greatness of her sophomore effort.
Beyoncé's unexpected album, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, is a good one. I personally think it's one of Beyoncé's best, but her unconventional release overshadowed the actual work a little. People are still talking about the surprise of the release and how innovative it was…few music journalist are actually writing reviews of the album. Her smart release was so unexpected; critics couldn't review it fast enough to include it on any of their year end, album of the year lists.
Beyoncé made the music critics obsolete, and Adele, an artist whose recent track record with critics is pretty stellar (see "Skyfall"), may not want to bypass them when her next album is released. However, with her fan base starving for something new; her critics will have very little impact on her initial sales. Adele and Beyoncé are pretty much critic proof; that is until a mass audience praises their work or pans it.
Adele and Beyoncé don't need radio play initially to sale albums. That cuts out a music executive trying to predict which track will be a smash hit "for the artist." In time, a great song will get a lot of play on the airwaves, but the initial excitement now will be in the first few days of an albums release, not when DJ's and the record label attempt to hype up a particular track.
Adele's career is so hot; she doesn't have to repeat what Beyoncé did; but she does have a big business decision ahead of her.
The quality of Adele and Beyoncé's individual albums will be the ultimate factor in their lasting success. But in the meantime, they're two exceptional musicians in their artistic prime with the music industry hanging on their every move and note.
And both ladies are intelligent enough to know precisely how to cash their much deserved, entertainment capital.
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