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Looks like Epic records has a hit album on their hands – Epic AF. Heard of it?<\/p>\nLooks like Epic records has a hit album on their hands – Epic AF. Heard of it?<\/p>\n
Epic has collected its artists\u2019 most popular summer singles that were not released with an album \u2014 \u201cLockjaw\u201d by French Montana and Kodak Black, \u201cDon\u2019t Mind\u201d by Kent Jones, \u201cPick Up the Phone\u201d by Travis Scott and Young Thug \u2014 and placed them into one digital playlist, giving it a hip title and some generic cover art. In 2016, that\u2019s enough to call it an album.<\/p>\n
Why you ask?<\/p>\n
Since late 2014, Billboard has counted 1,500 streams or 10 paid downloads of a song as the equivalent of one album sold. But if a hit single comes from an album that is unreleased, the millions of plays it tallies on services like Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music go nowhere.<\/p>\n
Now, with this new album, when Billboard counts the weekly plays for hits like \u201cDon\u2019t Mind,\u201d which has 139 million Spotify streams to date, they are attached to the album. With an album, this gives way for marketing and branding opportunities that may have never existed.<\/p>\n
Dave Bakula, a senior analyst for Nielsen Music, which supplies the data Billboard uses for its charts, said that some could see the tactic as \u201ctrying to manipulate the charts.\u201d But \u201cif they\u2019re living within the rules, good for them in being creative and having enough of a stable of big-name artists and big songs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Billboard has not commented on Epic\u2019s methods. But this week, the chart company opted to change its rules slightly so that paid downloads of singles included on this album do not count toward its chart position but streaming numbers do.<\/p>\n
Still, the system is flexible.<\/p>\n
Take the current hits from DJ Khaled (\u201cFor Free,\u201d \u201cI Got the Keys\u201d) as examples. Before the release of DJ Khaled\u2019s own album \u201cMajor Key\u201d on July 29, the streams for those songs were going toward the compilation album. This week, however, they were counted toward \u201cMajor Key,\u201d which hit No. 1. (As a result of losing those streams and all song sales, the compilation album dropped to No. 32 from No. 5, having accomplished its goal as a placeholder hit.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did what it was supposed to do,\u201d said Celine Joshua, a senior vice president for commerce at Epic and its parent company, Sony Music Entertainment, who oversaw the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was born out of a need and a problem,\u201d she said. \u201cI was thinking about our hot roster and the cycles of which content was coming out when, albums that were around the corner and how young fans on these platforms are behaving \u2014 consuming in the playlist manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
source: nytimes<\/p>\n
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