12 of the Strangest Album Promotions in History
Albums don’t just magically sell themselves. Musicians and their labels have to put in the occasional effort in the marketing of their records. And sometimes, those artists have to be a little outrageous to get noticed (or at least strike a deal with Apple to put the music directly into your iTunes). Below are 12 promotions that went above and beyond the call of duty, with varying degrees of success.
1. Michael Jackson’s statues
Michael Jackson, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995)
Proving that record companies have ridiculously deep pockets, Sony and Michael Jackson spent a whopping $30 million promoting Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The HIStory World Tour spanned 58 countries and was attended by about 4.5 million fans, but the real cost lay in the giant King of Pop statues that were placed throughout Europe. The original prototype weighed roughly 40,000 pounds, though the final statues were a modest 20,000.
2. John Freese’s $10k album (comes with a car)
Josh Freese, Since 1972 (2009)
It’s very likely that, at some point in your life, you’ve listened to an album Josh Freese has drummed on. He’s performed with Axl Rose, Sting, A Perfect Circle, Weezer, The Offspring, Sublime, Devo, The Vandals, and countless others. He’s even dabbled in some solo works, and with Since 1972, Freese created a Kickstarter of sorts, with all sorts of cool goodies. For a mere $50, consumers got the CD/DVD, a t-shirt, and a 5-minute phone call with Freese himself, where they could ask questions like “Which one of Sting’s mansions has the comfiest beds?” For $10,000, he’d take you to Disneyland and then give you his Volvo station wagon (pictured above) at the end of the night. And for $75,000, one lucky fan got a barrage of prizes, like getting a 5-song EP recorded about his or her life, having Freese as a personal assistant/cabana boy for two weeks, and taking a trapeze lesson with him and Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails.
3. Kanye vs. 50 Cent, loser quits music
Kanye West/50 Cent, Graduation/Curtis (2007)
Back in 2007, Kanye West and 50 Cent were both near the top of the rap game. And with albums coming out on the same date, it only seemed natural that a little public feud was in store. During promotional interviews for Curtis, Fiddy said if Kanye outsold him, he’d retire from rap. Kanye’s Graduation went on to outsell Curtis 957,000 to 691,000. Not too shabby for either artist, and of course, 50 Cent did not retire from making music. In fact, his celebrity has only increased—he’s even gone on to throw out horrible first pitches at baseball games.
4. Nine Inch Nails hiding music in bathrooms
Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero (2007)
Frontman Trent Reznor hinted that his band’s album was just part of a bigger number of things he was working on. He certainly delivered: Year Zero had its own alternate reality game, set in the year 2022 in a world where the U.S. had become a Christian fundamentalist state devoid of civil rights. Fans could decipher cryptic clues in objects scattered around NIN concerts, like fliers protesting against corrupt government, spectrograms, and USB flash drives that were hidden in bathroom stalls at the concert venues. There were also several phone numbers that had wiretapped conversations and snippets of songs from the album.
5. Jay-Z’s Holy Grail of phone marketing
Jay-Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail (2013)
Mr. Z is a man of the people. Specifically, people with Samsung phones. For his Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay-Z released the first million copies as a free download to Samsung users, with the company paying him $5 per copy. If you didn’t have a Samsung cell, tough—you’d have to buy the album the old-school way. Hova sold 528,000 copies the first week (not counting the free million), and topped the Billboard 200 charts in back-to-back weeks.
6. Boards of Canada’s vinyl clues
Boards of Canada, Tomorrow’s Harvest (2013)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
