November 22, 2019
From Katy Perry’s big shiny lorry to Lady Gaga’s flying dress, the final months of the year were known for opulent album launches. So why has pop now become so frugal?
Why the music industry blow-out era imploded
In the pre-streaming era, no stunt was too absurd for the fourth quarter, AKA Q4, the money-spunking climax of the pop year. Rihanna kidnapped 150 journalists and drip-fed them booze on a plane; Lady Gaga launched a flying dress; Taylor Swift’s face was splashed over your 14-inch Papa John’s pizza. Pop divvies up the year into Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, lasting three months apiece, and in the CD era, an album could triple its sales if released during the shopping bonanza of Q4. It led to a bottom-heavy release calendar, as if pop’s golden goose had been fattening up all year to pelt fans with gleaming eggs. Or, in Katy Perry’s case, a big shiny lorry to promote her 2013 opus Prism.
Q4 sales have been in decline since Spotify launched in 2008, but the nail in its coffin came last year, when profits from CD sales were surpassed by streaming revenue. With less now hinging on a year-end push, a grand total of zero albums from pop’s genuine A-list are scheduled for a Q4 release in 2019, leading Popjustice editor Peter Robinson to recently proclaim a partial moratorium on the quarter. As he noted: “The … year-round onslaught of Big Pop in the streaming era means that The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year has lost some of its power to Qs 2, 3 and 1.”
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