Selling music today is not a easy thing anymore with the availability to illegally download music at your fingertips. That’s why promoting albums is becoming more and more crucial. In the case of Rihanna’s new album unapologetic they went to seven different countries in seven days on a Boeing 777, and if it doesn’t get more exciting than that they even gave out bags of artificial diamonds to promote her single. If that wasn’t enough people are all a buzz over the album cover that shows Rihanna shirtless with only her elbow and album name covering her up.
Sex isn’t a new way to sell albums, and I don’t understand what makes it so shocking that sex still sells. It is easier for artist to promote themselves such as independent artists because social media is so powerful and popular. An example of this is the rapper Macklemore Ryan Lewis who are independent artists, and had their album debut at number one on the charts. They were able to gain popularity through their music videos, mixtapes, and song content such as same sex marriage. This is just another way artists can promote themselves and try to beat the monster that is online music.
Promotion is also becoming crucial in the book industry with hardcover book sales dropping, and most people shopping online. Bing and Jay-Z collaborated to promote his Book Decoded and it was a huge success becoming a bestseller. They enlarged pages of his book on billboards and placed them in major cities putting up one page a day while viewers could follow online. This was not only a success for Jay Z, but for Bing as well because they had a hike in traffic on their site.
Patrick Enslow 