Streaming has been the hot topic in the music industry and whether it can be utilized to revive sales and provide enough royalties to put food on musicians' tables. Many labels are hoping so, and although many held out in the early years of Spotify and similar services, they are now putting their roster's on streaming sites to promote publicity if nothing else. Capitol decided to try a different hand when promoting Sam Smith however and it seems to have paid off.
Capitol Records saw that rising star Smith would be going head-to-head with Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence when his debut In The Lonely Hour dropped during June. Based strictly on strength of name, Del Rey was more or less guaranteed to beat out her competition for the top spot on the Billboard 200 (the pop star is represented by Interscope, which is under the Universal umbrella with Capitol). Smith's label opted to not release In The Lonely Hour on Spotify as a ploy to get regular streamers to take the plunge and buy the record instead.
It nearly worked. Ultraviolence came out on top after selling 182,000 copies, but Smith's effort was still strong, bringing in 166,000 sales of its own. Smith's victory would become evident in the long run. By the time both albums had been out three weeks, In The Lonely Hour had sold 278,000 copies, more than 26,000 copies more than Del Rey. The real advantage comes in terms of total songs downloaded however. Fans have bought 2.5 million singles from Smith's album (including the no. 1 smash "Stay With Me") while only downloading 367,000 singles from Del Rey.
The killing blow: Smith's record is now available on Spotify and people are still buying. Streaming hasn't quite won yet.
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