July 13, 2015
Canadians and Americans alike used to have to wait until Tuesdays for new music releases, while Germans waited until Friday for the same record or single to be released. But that’s all changed now thanks to a new system called New Music Fridays.
New Music Fridays, the first of which began last Friday on July 10, has the participation of 45 countries in an effort to unify the way consumers access digital and physical music worldwide. The traditional system of music release dates has become increasingly obsolete as the music industry continues to change on a global scale. The introduction of global music release dates means less confusion for consumers, a shared global experience between fans, and reintroduces excitement to the music industry.
Frances Moore, Chief Executive Officer for IFPI says, “New Music Fridays is the result of tremendous cross-industry collaboration, involving labels, artists, retailers and others. Establishing a global release day for new music means fans across the world can get new music as soon as it is released and we can recreate that sense of excitement that new music used to bring. We hope it will be a case of ‘Think Fridays…think new music’.”
Why Friday? Aside from being the start of the weekend, Friday is a common payday for many people, which makes it a choice day for fans eagerly anticipating new music, not to mention that 11 of the 45 countries that are currently participating in New Music Fridays already release new music on that day of the week.
Celebrating New Music Fridays (courtesy of Warner Music)
Music Canada and Dine Alone Records helped promote New Music Fridays at the sold-out Foo Fighters show at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre.
Follow #newsmusicfridays on twitter for more information or check out pro-music.org for a complete list of worldwide music download stores and subscription services.
In other news…
- Hockey Dad Records turns 10
- Make a pledge for Sum 41’s new album
- Look whose mothers made it the Foo Fighters show
- Dear Rouge wins SOCAN Songwriting Prize
Leyland Bradley
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Get at me @LeylandMarie or leyland.bradley@gmail.com.