Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Alicia Keys, and Alanis Morissette are among the artists that have pushed back release dates for their respective albums due to the coronavirus pandemic. Presumably, the lack of ability to properly promote an album is the reason why ; not to mention that the economy is getting hit thus album sales would suffer. It has come with a lot of different interesting outcomes but it really feels like this is the right time to release new music.
Let’s look at some of the ways the virus has affected certain album releases.
Artists Are Re-Doing Their Albums
Sam Smith was on track to release the album To Die For on June 2020, but now it has been pushed back indefinitely. Singles from the album had already been put out and everything was about ready to go. When the pandemic started shutting things down, Smith made the decision to not only delay the album but apparently completely scrap it.
Sam released one of the songs on it called ‘I’m Ready’ with Demi Lovato – and during an interview for that song, Sam said that this song might remain as a standalone single and the album might be started again from scratch. That means that some of the other songs Sam worked on might never see the light of day even though they were more than confirmed to be on the album.
Most Albums Don’t Have New Dates
While some albums like Alanis Morissette’s Such Pretty Forks In The Road were delayed but with a new date already set, a lot of albums don’t even have concrete release dates. Alicia Keys was releasing her self-titled album back in March, but now it will come out … some day?
Same thing with Lady Gaga’s long-awaited Chromatica album. It might be true that it was delayed because she started working on finding a way to help healthcare workers and developed the One World: Together At Home telecast last week. However, it’s not far-fetched that the trend here is the lack of promo ability when everything is being done virtually.
Music Heals Amid Uncertainty
These are maybe not the most adequate times to ‘sell’ something because you are limited with how much promoting you can do. But it feels like now more than ever artists shouldn’t delay music releases. Fans need it. Music helps.
Fans are turning to forms of entertainment to endure the mental health challenges that come with staying at home all day, every day. Netflix saw an increase of a whooping 15 million subscribers since the pandemic started happening. People are spending a lot of time consuming content – and listening to music too. Music streaming is up by 53% since COVID-19 became a global outbreak.
It is likely that many of these artists perhaps thought that this wouldn’t last as long as it has, and that they would be able to announce a new release date sooner rather than later. With the abundance of new information and trends regarding the virus, it is clear that there is no real end in sight. It is likely that living life virtually might be the norm for months to come. That is why it is time for artists to start reconsidering whether or not they should delay their albums.
This might be a good time to drop new music, work on new music, and then give us even more new music when this is all over. At the end of this, people are going to miss a lot of things – such as attending concerts and festivals. Everything will be okay in the end. But please, give us the music.
