In Joyful

Almost every student taking marketing and advertising college classes throughout the world would agree that aggressive promotion and hype generation are the best tools to fuel product sales.Especially in the music industry, where popular songs can become viral in a matter of minutes, the advertising campaign for an artist’s album is perhaps more important than the musical content in regards to sales totals.However, there are several rare exceptions including English quintet Radiohead, who surprisingly released their eighth studio album, The King of Limbs, on Friday. Music fans at colleges and universities across the U.S. rushed to their laptops once they received word that the band’s first release since 2007′s In Rainbows was available for download.Over the last two decades, the award-winning alternative rock band has established a reputation as one of the most innovative acts to invade the main guitar songs stream. Aside from their unique sound, Radiohead has rewritten the book on how musical artists can release music. On October 10, 2007, the band broke new ground when it released In Rainbows as a digital download exclusively on its website. It allowed customers to choose the price that they wanted to pay for the music.On January 1, 2008, the CD version of In Rainbows was released in North America. Although Radiohead allowed customers to purchase their music for free for more than two months, the album received rave reviews, eventually generated millions of dollars in albums sales and later won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album. However, the biggest buzz may have surrounded the album’s unique release.Led by frontman Thom Yorke, Radiohead shook things up again this past week. On Monday, the band announced that The King of Limbs would be available for online purchase on Saturday, February 19.