Fridays only!

Barring the odd move to a different day in the week for astrological, numerological or financial reasons, movies release in most territories on Fridays. And in a bid to nip piracy in the bud, day-and-date releases are quickly gaining in popularity.

Music, on the other hand, follows a timetable/release schedule of its own. So, currently, all new music — digital and physical — is released in Australia first (on Friday), then in the UK (on Monday), the US (on Tuesday) and in Germany (next Friday). Come July 2015, however, all that is set to change with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) considering releasing all new albums on Fridays only. For the time being, India doesn’t follow a fixed schedule, but with a global shift in the offing, one imagines it will have to join in.

But first, does a global unified date make sense?  Says Devraj Sanyal, Managing Director, Universal Music & EMI Music, South Asia, “It’s about time. With everyone going digital, a staggered release date has no value. If the change does come about, new music will release on Fridays one minute after midnight, no matter what time zone. Everybody gets their music, at their local time the same time. The IFPI is involving everyone in this.”

So he does support the change. “I think it’s a brilliant move. Right now, half the problems are because of availability. You want it today, you want it right now. And because of the technology layer, it has become easy to access any and all music when you want.” Is streaming an option? He says, “Streaming might curb piracy to the extent that you might consider spending legitimately on a single rather than download a torrent.” 

Arjun Sankalia, Director International Music, Sony Music India feels, “The success of Beyoncé’s last album release may have set this line of thinking in motion (the singer released all singles and videos for those singles at once). Earlier you could isolate awareness and interest creation, but with social media, you are already going global with a single tweet. Once you create a desire for something, the desire is international, and if the availability is staggered, it triggers a section of people to get it from illegitimate sources. That being said, a unified release date will require a lot of co-ordination on the part of retailers as well as chart companies.”

Ask Luke Kenny, Channel Head 9XO, who’s been a keen observer of changes in the music industry in general, and he feels that the coming change is “quite a late wakeup call. It’s odd that something as simple as a unified release date didn’t exist for the music industry. Geographical restrictions go out the window when you get content at the same time.”

Does he believe it will curb piracy? Luke is positive. He reasons, “Consider that here’s an artiste you really want to hear, but the label might not release his album here for whatever reason... A fan won’t wait for them to decide about a physical release. So, aligning worldwide releases is great for marketing, and for everybody who will not have to resort to piracy. However, the next challenge is for streaming and legal needs to join hands and monetise the release, he points out.

T-Series Chairman and MD Bhushan Kumar feels the shift won’t affect us. He tersely says, “You can’t control the date because people here are not very reliable on delivering the masters. Delays will happen. We do try to release simultaneously in all markets all over. In fact, as far as the Indian music industry goes, we release 70% of our content on all platforms at the same time anyway. Indian people don’t follow the temperament followed elsewhere. It really doesn’t matter to us.”