By Akane Otani
To her legion of fans around the world, Beyoncé can now add Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse, author of an upcoming case study on the artist. Elberse’s study will focus on the business impact of Queen Bey’s 2013 surprise album drop. For those who have somehow forgotten about the seminal news event of the past several years: Without any advance marketing, Beyoncé released a self-titled album of songs and videos at the stroke of midnight on December 13, 2013, effectively just leaving it on iTunes and walking away. When fans awoke to the stunning news, they found they could buy only the $15.99 album in full—sampling one song at a time was out of the question. Beyoncé was able to eschew the standard prerelease industry regimen of advertisements, singles, public appearances, and just generally making any mention of a new album, in part because she is Beyoncé.
[eap_ad_1] “She’s clearly among the most powerful people in the music industry at the moment … so to understand the operation behind such a powerful figure is always very interesting,” Elberse said to the Harvard Gazette. Elberse’s case study will ask whether Beyoncé’s unconventional strategy was a smart business idea and not just just a way to force apoplectic superfans to take an unplanned day off work and forgo a “good ass lunch.” “I think most people regard this release as a huge success artistically, and I am among them. But whether it was worth it from a business perspective is for the students to figure out,” she said to the Gazette. At first glance, the numbers suggest it was. “Beyoncé” hit the Billboard 200 at the top of the chart, notching the singer her fifth consecutive No. 1 album. It sold 828,773 copies in its first three days, smashing iTunes’ record for fastest-selling album. Elberse suggests, however, that alienating major retailers with her prerelease silence may have been unwise. Target and Amazon.com, left out of the surprise like everyone else, boycotted sales of the physical album. Some consumers raised an eyebrow at having to buy the whole thing instead of getting to pay up for individual tracks. Then there’s the future to think about: Will the surprise drop complicate things for Beyoncé when she plans her next album release? Luckily for Beyoncé, Harvard Business School students are on it. They’ll be taking an in-depth look at the case study in Elberse’s “Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries” class next month. (Businessweek)
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