I noticed something this week while listening to new singles by some of my favorite major label artists that leads me to believe there's a trend change going on with established acts. Let me outline what I've seen this week
Green Day new single Oh Love - 5:05 mins.
No Doubt new single Settle Down - 6:00 mins.
A Fine Frenzy new single Now Is The Start - 4:43 mins.
These singles aren't at all what a 'single' length is considered yet each of these established artists this week have chosen to release them as the first impression of their soon to be full length albums. I don't think established artists are concerned with radio play anymore. Given, there will be radio EDITS of these singles but that's all they'll be; an edit so radio CAN play them. They've chosen to release their art as they see fit in their own means.
Green Day released their single via a 3D Youtube lyrics video. They WANT their fans to log onto Youtube, learn the words and interact with a 3D video. No longer are they worried about breaking their single on KROQ or other rock stations. That'll come later; they want the fans to be their mouth piece virally.
No Doubt premiered their new video on E! at 8PM but really the song appeared on their website and Youtube that morning. Again, putting the promotion in online blogs and fans.
A Fine Frenzy went a little more traditional route of releasing the single on iTunes; yet still no letterhead from her company with an announcement, no big release promotion. Simple tweets and Facebook posts by her and her label. After all she has 500,000+ followers on all outlets. What promotion do you know that's going to simataneously make that many people aware?
None of this is 'news'. Social outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube have been the top choice on breaking new and established bands. What I find interesting is it's no longer the 'trend' but now simply 'how it's done'. In turn these established artists no longer seem concerned with getting into that magic radio play time of 3:15-4 minutes. They simply are releasing the art and song they feel most strongly about and they feel their fans will respond to the most. Green Day's Youtube video will get more re-tweets, re-blogs and re-posts than any radio station could ever spin in a day. Hell, than ALL the radio stations in the entire country could spin in a day.
The labels are really behind picking these singles so it's even more interesting to think that Virgin, Capitol, Sony, etc. are less concerned with releasing the most radio playable option but what they feel is going to get the most hits on Youtube.
It's a complicated marketplace though. For established artists such as Green Day, No Doubt and A Fine Frenzy who have all sold millions of records around the globe they no longer need radio play immediately. For smaller independent bands radio is still a completely viable and legit way to break a band. So we have this divide of bands who WANT to be Green Day having to condense their art into a 3:30 min pop single for radio and who have the ACTUAL Green Day who's setting a trend of 'fuck 3:30 mins this our art'. So, where do we land folks?
Marc Geiger of WME (among a credit list the size of DMX's police offenses) says you can break a band simply from a positive Pitchfork review. If anyone knows it's him. We all know Pitchfork could give a shit about radio playability. So is it in new artists best interest to follow this trend being set by established artists? Fuck the radio rules, break me on Pitchfork, Absolutepunk.net, NPR online, SPIN.com, Youtube or even XM radio where Clear Channel rules don't even apply. It seems based on this weeks releases we're headed there.
Coming from personal experience there is nothing like hearing your song on THE radio for the first time. It's exciting, exhilarating, and all sorts of other great emotions. I can't help but feel in 10 years it won't matter though. I can't say I don't get the same rush seeing someone re-tweet our Soundcloud link, or seeing a review on a major blog for thousands to see. More of that is happening and it's becoming more important to make music digestible and not necessarily 3:30 minutes. That's the thing about all 3 of the singles I've used as examples; they're ALL very digestible. They leave you wanting more and anticipating the full length record. Whether it's 6 minutes or 3:30 minutes is becoming a moot point. Does it make people re-blog, re-share, re-tweet and re-watch? If it's a yes, you've already won.
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