After Puff Daddy released his free project MMM as a mixtape last month, yesterday (December 18) he released it for purchase as a full album. He cites Kendrick Lamar as the reasoning behind this marketing strategy among a few other notable names. Hit the jump for the full story.
In an interview hosted by the Associated Press, Diddy/Daddy speaks on the reasoning behind his latest album’s re-release:
“I was surprised that after people had a chance to have it for free, they still want to buy it. I heard about the effect that Kendrick had when he let everybody hear his album for a week for free before they could buy it. It just shows that if it’s quality, people have a demand for it.”
Kind of surprising coming from such a marketing genius as himself, taking a note from the younger generation…but than again Kendrick really speaks for a wider range of music and only the smartest keep learning.
Although, Kendrick never released either of his major-label projects [albums] for free, prior to them being for sale. However, in March his second major-label LP To Pimp A Butterfly was on iTunes a week prior to it’s release, just the clean version albeit, but it let fans sample what was to soon come and also created a huge frenzy for the album’s release the following week.
That lead to him having a huge opening week, with 350,000 albums sold and it also broke the Spotify record for most streams in a day – with 9.6 million.
However, that early release of K.Dot’s album was a mistake on the label’s part but it wound up working out for the Compton m.c.
Other artist’s have gone that route, purposely, with J. Cole letting fans stream his 2013 Born Sinner album on his website, inviting fans to his home to hear his classic 2014 Forest Hills Drive, and Mac Miller also did the same by releasing his GOOD A.M. album for stream 1 week prior to it coming out, in September.
MMM is Puffy’s prequel to his self-proclaimed “last album”, No Way Out 2, which is said to see the light of day sometime in 2016. But than again, when you have your own record label you can make an album any time you want.
