Every once in a while something happens across the entertainment industry that makes me think. Yesterday was that kind of day as Beyonce, out of nowhere released a new album. Usually there is a press tour and press releases before an artist drops an album but not this time. As it was reported in USA Today Beyonce just dropped the album without any of that. Most people that follow the music industry didn't even know she was making an album or 17 videos to go along with it. I am sure there were some serious NDA disclosures going on.
The lesson that I took from it was that Beyonce will have millions of downloads this weekend because she has an extensive email list and a huge social media following. From what I have read she uses email and Tumblr very well to keep her fan base up to date with what she is doing. Her fan base is extremely loyal and it shows. Without her asking her fans Beyonce fans generated more than 1.2 million Tweets in just 12 hours. I am sure it would have been more if she had tweeted out to her 13 million followers on Twitter what she was doing. She didn't have to as her fans saw a video for the album on Facebook from Beyonce and it just took a life of it's own across all social media channels.
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Needless to say her album shot to the top of iTunes within hours on Friday the 13th. The lack of publicity made the press eat up the story even more than if she would of did a press tour and talked about the album. Saturday morning in my inbox was the email from iTunes which I am sure generated a few million more in downloads.
As I am writing this it is late Saturday night and Billboard magazine has said that she has sold 430,000 albums at $15.99. If my math is correct that is about 6.8 million dollars in sales without spending a penny on advertising. Whoever said the money is in the list wasn't kidding!
Another thing she did by accident is create such a buzz I am sure all the people at the morning television shows would kill to have her on. At this point she can stay home and have them come to her, on her time schedule.