The Return of the Album Drop…and I’m Here for It

The last few years have seen a swing back to the days of the album drop. Remember the days of being excited for a record to come out. Finding a way to ditch school or work to hit the record store as soon as it opened to get your hands on In Utero, or Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or Van Halen’s 1984? You had to be quick. Waiting until the end of the day could mean missing out and you may have to wait weeks for a new shipment to come in.

A lot was on the line and record drops were hyped. Lead singles were played over and over as local radio stations gave away early copies of the record. Huge posters announcing a record’s arrival adorned malls and record stores with all the fanfare of a parade for astronauts who returned to Earth. Then the internet came and digital records. Now space and distribution was no longer an issue. You could drop a record whenever you wanted with as many songs as you liked.

During the early years for digital music artists did not make the switch and kept marketing releases like they did with good ol’ physical media. People put out lead singles and record drops were still a thing. Radiohead took it even further by dropping In Rainbows for whatever you wanted to pay through their website. This was not a traditional drop, but got a huge buzz going for the record and helped vault Radiohead back into the public consciousness. Marketing music largely remained the same…but there was a shift in the wind. Beyoncè thought that she didn’t need to follow the rules and dropped her self-titled record Beyoncé with nothing. You went to bed and woke up with a new Beyoncé record. Such a stealth drop shook the music industry and became the norm for big artists. Album’s like Lemonade, Folklore and Evermore dropped without a word and still sold millions of copies.

Even though this tactic was largely reserved for big name artists, the record drop lost its shine. For about a decade people were mainly buying singles and records were not prized possessions. Now with stealth drops, the art of the record drop died off like a forgotten language..swept away with the sands of time. Big recrods were being stealth dropped as well. Recently, Justin Bieber’s SWAG and SWAG II were dropped totally out of the blue. In the past these long awaited records would have had a build up with singles, videos, hype and probably even a countdown to release. Now it was a story on Pitchfork with a link to the record. Is the record drop extinct? Did it go out like the dinosaurs…from a Beyoncé sized meteor? Have no fear…for the disease can also be the cure…

Even though Bieber went with the stealth release, the record drop hype of the 80s and 90s is back…largely with the help of the people who doomed it in the first place. Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, two artists who ushered in the popularity of the modern stealth release, are now bringing the release back. Cowboy Carter had a metric ton of hype, which I ate up in delight. She released some singles and word around the music scene was that it was going to be a COUNTRY RECORD! Hype grew as people tried to conceive of a country record by Beyoncé and by the time it dropped the record was the talk of culture. One of the biggest country music releases of the last 15 years and all due to the traditional record drop. Not to be outdone, Taylor Swift has turned the record drop into an art form. Her lead up to Life of a Showgirl has involved cryptic Insta Easter eggs, an announcement on Travis Kelce’s podcast and pre-order orange coloured glitter vinyl…which I have ordered thank you.

Bruce Springsteen has even entered the ring with his highly anticipated Electric Nebraska release, which will be a sprawling 4 LP drop with concert recordings, B sides, demos and the fabled Electric Nebraska. He has even released a single of a Born in the USA demo. This drop has the Springsteen world in a frenzy and will definitely be one of the biggest Springsteen drops in a long time.

It is great to see the traditional record drop coming back. Sure, you don’t have to line up at a record store in the mall next to an Orange Julius, but pre-order vinyl, mystery singles and viral countdowns have brought the excitement back.