Beyonce: The Album With No Gimmicks.... Or Was It

 

     This Friday the 13th had become the day of bad luck, for other female artists because Beyonce decided to stealthily upload her album on iTunes.

"I didn’t want to release my music the way I’ve done it. I am bored with that. I feel like I am able to speak directly to my fans. There’s so much that gets between the music, the artist and the fans. I felt like I didn’t want anybody to give the message when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it’s ready and from me to my fans." - Beyonce commenting on her decision

     As expected, news of this act has swept the internet by storm. Countless posts and tweets have flooded the internet commenting and praising Beyonce on her album and her decision putting the album on iTunes just out of the blue without any form of promotion or teasers that you would expect her, along with many artists, to do in order to get people to buy their albums or announcing a release date to get people amp and ready to buy it. Some people are hailing it as the most genius move of promotion ever by posting an album without any promotion or gimmicks whatsoever, if that was the case. Beyonce's intention to release the album this way was the gimmick and we all fell for it.
     An important person told me that in marketing and public relations, knowing you demographic is the most important thing to know. Beyonce obviously knows her demographic. She knows that her deeply loyal and insane fans are the biggest method of promotion she has. She knows that all she has to do is just post something and her army of fans will go to every social media website and will make thousands and thousands of comments dedicated to whatever she posted and it will reach millions upon millions of people worldwide. If you have been following her closely in the past year, this wasn't the first time she did something like this. She unexpectedly leaked tracks from the album and even posted a selfie with her sporting a shorter haircut. One would have to wonder if these were just tests to see how the public will react.
     So has this worked? Let's see, just in a mere three hours, Beyonce has sold 80,000 copies and just after a day, she has sold over 430,000 copies on iTunes. So, did Beyonce change the way artist push out their music? Maybe that is the topic of another post but there is a lesson to be learned from her PR move, future female artists in the making and artist that are established now, take note. Know. Your. Fans.