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Business News Labels & Publishers Retail
US indie stores back global street day, but not Friday
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 26 August 2014
Good news everybody. The Department Of Record Stores – which represents about hundred indie record sellers in the US and Canada – thinks a global record release street day is a great idea. Providing the street day the globe adopts is the North American one.
As previously reported, the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry recently confirmed moves are afoot for the record industry worldwide to adopt the same day of the week for releasing new records, making online marketing easier. It’s not a controversial proposal in principle – most people agree with the logic of new releases going online on the same day worldwide – but the big question is “which day?”.
The IFPI said that “positive dialogue with organisations representing artists, chart compilers, digital services, independent record labels and physical format retailers” had honed in on Friday as the preferred day, though a few such organisations around the world responding with a “who said what about what now?”
To be fair, while the Department Of Record Stores is pushing for the US release day of Tuesday to be adopted around the world, it is willing to be a bit flexible. Just not as far as Friday.
According to Billboard, the group said in an email: “The worldwide change should be made in a positive way and it should be done to maximise opportunities to increase sales for all retail partners. Tuesday would be the least disruptive because North America and the UK are the world’s largest markets for music, and the Tuesday street date used by Canada and the US would mean that only the UK would need to move up its street date” (which is currently Monday).
Wednesday might be workable, the DRS added, but “Friday is the worst choice for a worldwide street date, because it will require costly changes and would lead to less sales”. So there you go. The IFPI hopes that a global street day could go live as soon as next summer.
