you are competing against other artists for fans' limited and dwindling attention

is there like an uploading fee for not dropping thursday midnight

i know some artists don't do this

new mach-hommy album SATURDAY

Remember when it used to be Tuesday

BEYONCÉ

I wish smaller artists would stop tryna be like the big artists

and to further answer your question, it's simply because that's when the sales tracking week begins. if you see a release on a day other than friday, it's probably not a major release and the label doesn't really mind or someone is ducking another major release. there's no fee lol, just the way the game goes

I'm not 100 percent on this, but I think it has something to do with giving the album more time to climb the charts..

say more? i assumed it was something commercial like this
but iiuc that's silly; any streams/purchases since release should be counted, because that would reflect reality
and some artists' streams would benefit from not being same night as eg j cole

I’m glad it’s like that, albums just dropping on random days would be chaos

not much more to explain really, the tracking of the sales/streaming/airplay week begins at friday 12am (EST I believe) and ends on thursday. so the labels are obviously gonna position their s*** to capture streams from the very second they start to track for the week, and maximize sales.

it's antiquated i suppose because the way we can collect data like streams and such down to the day/hour doesn't really fall in line with that anymore. but it's just the way it's set up if that makes sense

and there would really be no benefit to not dropping it on friday 12am tbh. fans are gonna listen to your s*** or not

That's when the tracking week starts for first week sales

Used to be Tuesday like other countries but got pushed to Friday in 2015

makes sense now, thanks.

so it's labels optimizing metrics for charts. funny, because it's not like money from purchases and streams wouldn't line pockets on days besides friday — they care just about the visible chart number itself, for appearance.

so underground artists who dont do it for metrics but to express should def not heed this industry standard.

right? ok i thought it was mandela effect beating my ass

sure they don't have to and we see instances where they don't. but also it's just kinda become the day to expect all of the new releases, so it's like why even "dupe" your fans and drop it on a monday i guess? it's what we're accustomed to. streaming services even have their designated lists, "new music fridays" or whatever. all a part of the industry and its systems breh

They building a brand. Chart recognition helps with that. It's about the long term plays rather than some short term pocket change!

and most underground artists don’t drop friday tbh. some do though but it’s def a thing that people are aware of for this exact reason

there is also an opposite school of thought that says its better to drop at the same time as the big artists bc people will have their app open and see you too. idk how much i buy it tho

New slaves

u just turn in the wav to the distributor! everything else is done by them

not sure how it goes with the spatial audio

In short… this is the correct answer

lmao word me too honestly. to upload u just need the cover art and the wav. some distributors tell you that you need a 16 bit wav but some don't care

the playlist stuff is def a factor too. and people in the industry who manage artists who arent giant go back and forth on this all the time

u can make new music friday without dropping on friday tho. two people would prob tell u different things on whether or not itll help you to drop friday or not haha

oh yeah no doubt, i just meant the very name of it having "friday" in it is an example of how conditioned the industry is towards a standard drop date.

hah for sure. and ive heard people be like "yo drop friday so u can make new music friday". the funny thing is most people really have no idea what's gonna work and what's not

some major label artists def drop on "off" days to try to grab a moment for themselves. i saw goldlink do that once