Album Release Date Global Standard Coming In 2015

According to Billboard, the record industry is currently taking steps to create a standard album release day all across the globe, in an effort to cut down on Internet music piracy.

The current system allows each country to set up their own standard release day to suit their individual markets, with America's being Tuesday and Australia's being Friday, for example. However, the record industry claims that these varying street dates negatively affect album sales, as consumers in one country can share an album online as soon as they buy it, giving consumers in other countries a chance to download it for free before it's available in stores.

If a global standard is set for album releases, it would see that all countries change their weekly street dates to Friday, so that consumers in each country can purchase a new album all on the same day.

While this may seem like a harmless change, many labels and physical retailers are opposing the idea of a global release date, claiming that it could negatively impact sales.

According to a label executive, "This global street date is necessary for the industry but unfortunately it will be awkward for the physical retailers to change their ways of doing business...Now, they could have two-thirds of their sales in one day, which would impact retail operation."

Billboard also points out the negative impact this could have on promotion, saying, "With varying street dates in different markets, the labels are able to move their artists around in order to take advantage of marketing opportunities that coincide with the changed street date. Now, labels can still do that on the week of release, but will have less opportunity to schedule a high-profile appearance on the release date itself."

As of right now, this new global street date is to be established in July 2015, giving retailers and labels a year to figure out how they will handle this newly structured business model.