In the past, musicians would release albums by announcing it to the press, hold an event at a record store, go on radio, appear on MTV, or something along those lines. However those are the older methods of announcing an album and while they are still perfectly legitimate, we guess artists will have to be more creative if they are hoping for listeners to purchase their music.
This is exactly what musician Skrillex has done with his latest album. For those unfamiliar, Skrillex is a musician who specializes in the dubstep genre and his music has appeared in video games in the past, such as in Far Cry 3.
For his latest album, Recess, Skrillex has decided to unveil it through an app designed for mobile devices which is available for download via the iTunes App Store and Google Play. The app is called Alien Ride and basically you will have to go through the game if you wish to listen to his entire album.
The music itself will be streamed, meaning that you won’t be able to save the songs onto your phone like a typical music file like MP3 or AAC. The app also notifies the gamer that the streaming will only be done for a limited time, after which they’d have to purchase the album if they wish to listen to it again.
It’s an interesting approach to promoting an album as well as providing added value at the same time. The more old school way of providing value would be to bundle the album with special artwork, a free t-shirt, a free signed poster, and so on, but now that we’re in the digital age, we don’t see why musicians can’t take advantage of that. What do you guys think? Regardless of what you think of Skrillex’s music and the dubstep genre, do you think this is a sound method?