soundtrack, the top album of 2014.)might not need 36 tracks to top the Billboard 200, but having more songs means the album gets more streams and generates greater royalties. The least-popular 18 songs amassed 170.3 million on-demand streams in the album’s debut week. If those 18 tracks were released as a separate album -- similar to the wayvolumes 1 and 2 simultaneously in 1991 -- it would have been the No. 2 album of the week.
Plus, artists don’t release albums as frequently as they used to. In the late ‘70s, artists often put out an album every year. Today, an artist will take two or three years -- and often longer -- between albums. Putting out longer albums could help labels make up for these widening gaps, with the caveat that only superstar releases tend to merit the kind of sprawling length seen in the form of recent releases by Wallen, Drake and others.
This kind of full-court press also serves to prolong -- and boost -- the success of individual tracks that would fade more quickly without an album attached. Eight of the 36 tracks onwere released prior to the album's street date and putting up strong numbers on their own. Still, their streams increased 89% the week of the album’s release. Four of the 8 tracks ended up in the Billboard Hot 100. In its sixth week on the Hot 100, Wallen’s single “Last Night” shot from No. 5 to No.
For an artist it is best to have more song choices available on media platforms so people can recognize the artist and their songs. More songs on an album means people will stream the songs that they like best more often and possibly listen to all of the artist’s new music.
rigged
Gee, I wonder where that advantage came from. Perhaps it was Billboard changing their policy to allow album tracks to chart on the hot 100 singles chart. This practice has to stop —it’s ridiculous.
When you have 3 Album in one, 36 songs overall, of course you might have 3x the streams