Growing numbers of fans are protesting online when labels delay the digital release of hit radio singles. But these consumer complaints are doing little to stop record companies from deferring the availability of downloads.
Just ask fans of “Hustlin’,” the chart-climbing track from rapper Rick Ross.
User forums inside the iTunes Music Store are burning up with posts clamoring for the song, which has been at radio for more than 22 weeks. Ross’ label, Island Def Jam, is yet to offer it for sale as a digital download.
Specifically, iTunes shoppers are using the iMix, a community playlist feature intended for music discovery, as a tool to lobby for the track’s release.
In recent weeks, iTunes users have created more than 100 iMix playlists that feature titles demanding availability of the single. For example, “!!!!!!!!$$$$$$$$We Want Rick Ross$$$$$$!!!!!” is a typical playlist name.
What is for sale is the video for “Hustlin’,” which iTunes offers for $1.99. That too has drawn the ire of some fans.
“The song should have came first — not the video,” one anonymous reviewer writes of the clip, echoing a common refrain voiced in the user comments.
Other users are advising frustrated fans to turn to file-sharing services to get the song.
Similar “protest” playlist campaigns are mounting inside iTunes, calling for the release of surging radio tracks like “SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake. Likewise, emo fans have created hundreds of playlists with titles imploring the release of the catalog of Hawthorne Heights.
Most labels offer tracks for digital sale when a single is released to radio. When they do not, fans quickly react. Playlists demanding the release of “Call on Me” by Janet Jackson and Nelly sprang up when the single was slow to show up on iTunes. It ultimately arrived digitally after more than four weeks at radio.
Whether the songs in the playlist relate to the iMix title (many do not) is beside the point.
In the comments section of the playlist, the iMix creators urge other shoppers to give their protest mix the highest possible rating. That makes their pleas more prominent when others search for the song in question. “Vote 5 stars to get ‘Hustlin” and other great songs by Rick Ross,” a typical iMix creator’s note to other users reads.
Fans are unsure about where to place the blame. The vast majority of consumer wrath is directed at iTunes, not at the labels holding back the music.
Most labels are unmoved by such online outcries. Generally, they are sitting on songs in hopes of driving sales of related products, like ringtones and videos, or — most important — to create a bigger first-week pop for the album and the digital single. Thus, “Hustlin”‘ likely will not surface as a legal download until Ross’ album, “Port of Miami,” drops August 8.
Island Def Jam is at the forefront of this trend, using the strategy this year with the likes of “SOS” by Rihanna and “So Sick” by Ne-Yo.
In both cases, iTunes users mounted furious playlist protests to no avail. But in the eyes of some music executives the label’s strategy worked. Witness Ne-Yo’s “In My Own Words,” which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 after its February 28 release. Similarly, Rihanna’s “SOS,” released at the end of April, rocketed to No. 1 on The Billboard Hot 100 and set a then-record for one-week sales of a digital track, moving more than 157,000 downloads.
In some cases, exclusives with other retailers can hold up the release of tracks. The arrival of Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” was delayed on iTunes, in part, because Epic Records gave Verizon an exclusive. Atlantic pursued a similar strategy with Sprint for T.I.’s “What You Know.”
Subscription services like RealNetworks’ Rhapsody are attempting to get around the hold-backs by offering to post music on a streaming-only basis ahead of street date. But label response has been limited.
Label executives and iTunes declined comment. But privately, label executives and retailers remain torn over whether hold-backs affect album sales.
The strategy “is just an old-fashioned record business belief that the first-week numbers have to look great,” an executive at one leading digital retailer says. “It’s about bragging rights in the marketing meeting.”
Tim Quirk, GM of music content and programming for RealNetworks, says the practice is self-defeating.
“Conversations I have with labels are, ‘Please, let’s not be pointless.’ When a label says, ‘We’re not releasing something online,’ that just means it’s not in the licensed services yet. It is online,” he says. “If something isn’t there that people want, they will go other places to get it. So you might as well make it available.”
Reuters/Billboard