Surprise releases from popular artists such as Beyonce and Radiohead signal changing tide of music marketing

It goes without saying that the music industry has changed drastically during the course of the last century. An industry that was once governed by corporate behemoths has seen a power dispersal thanks to the wide availability of recording technology and an increasingly interconnected world.

These days, anyone with a computer, a connection to the internet and bit of free time and ambition can put music out there for public consumption.

And put it out there, people have. During the last decade, there have been nearly 100,000 albums released per year. That’s a dizzying number. It’s an impossible task for any one person to listen to the whole of that deluge, and it’s sometimes difficult to even wade into it to find a few records worth listening to.

Where does one begin? How does an artist stand out?

An interesting recent phenomenon is the concept of the surprise album. Without warning, a record emerges into the world fully formed. In recent weeks, releases from Beyonce, Radiohead, Drake, James Blake and others all have chosen this tactic. They’ve taken the traditional model that incorporates marketing material packages, hype machines and dramatic roll-outs and turned it on its head in favor of a quick release, seemingly out of nowhere.

The arrival of Beyonce’s “Lemonade” was signaled by an email from Tidal and then there it was a day later, complete with an hour-long film to accompany the record. Radiohead’s online presence briefly disappeared altogether, only to emerge a few days later with a quick succession of singles, then a full album.

The downside to this phenomenon is the association with the streaming service wars. Carriers such as Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon and Tidal are vying for attention, and many artists are choosing sides, making their music available only on certain platforms.

Beyonce’s “Lemonade” was a Tidal exclusive for a short time; Radiohead’s “A Moon Shaped Pool” is available everywhere but Spotify, an organization that frontman Thom Yorke has described as “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse.”

But on the other side of proprietary distribution of music, there’s a big positive to be found: The general populace seems to be actually interested in the release of new music. Artists such as Beyonce and Radiohead have stumbled upon a release tactic that’s in sync with a capriciously changing world, and they’ve taken over the online community. Their presence is unavoidable.

Chatter surrounding these surprise releases has been frenetic and passionate, spawning think-pieces and wild conspiracy theories, involving both deeply loyal fans and those with only a cursory interest in the music released by either artist.

Whether this type of release is able to retain the interest of the public in a sustainable way remains to be seen, and the attainable results for other artists without the built-in reach of Radiohead or Beyonce are unknown. But the fact that there’s such deep public involvement — even if it is temporary — is a hopeful development in a music industry that is in desperate need of some good news.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Surprise releases from popular artists such as Beyonce and Radiohead signal changing tide of music marketing."