Does it make sense that a recording artist should be released in one territory first, days before anywhere else in the world? Does it make sense to restrict fans across the globe who are already aware of said release? Do you think this would drive fans outside of the initial release territory to acquire the new recording via torrent, or similar, sites?

Michael Brandvold certainly thinks so, in his blog post made yesterday he singles out the Van Halen release, info taken from Bravewords.com:

Starting at roughly 8:00am EST on Thursday, February 2nd, VAN HALEN’s new album A Different Kind Of Truth will reportedly be available via the Australian iTunes store (12:00 midnight on February 3rd Sydney time). Go to www.apple.com/au/itunes for more information.

A Different Kind Of Truth, will be released in North America by Interscope Records on February 7th. Audio samples from the entire album can be found at this location (click view in iTunes).

Michael goes on to state that the Van Halen album had already made its way on to torrent sites and argues that many U.S. and rest of the world fans would buy it from iTunes as of 2nd Feb instead of being made to wait until 7th Feb. This model worked in the ‘physical’ world when the record labels controlled distribution channels to drive up anticipation but in todays ‘Triple A’ music economy (Access Anywhere Anytime), we at AMPHQ fail to see how it can remain relevant. It just doesn’t fit.

Michael presents a compelling argument, one we agree with, especially when the recording industry is constantly spouting claims that internet piracy is killing music sales.

We know there have been moves towards ‘on air on sale’ release strategies, maybe its time for the labels to review how they release new music globally?. As Michael says, “there really should only be one territory for releasing records now… the World.”

Article source: There is Only One Territory for Releasing Music Now… the World – Michael Brandvold