Tyler, The Creator lands first UK number one album
Tyler, The Creator has scored his first UK number one album with Chromakopia, despite it only being available for four of the last seven days.
The Official Chart Company starts counting sales and streams at 00:01 on Fridays, when most projects from major labels are released.
But Tyler, ever the nonconformist, released his eighth studio album at 06:00 EST on Monday, three days after the week’s chart tracking began.
The 33-year-old, whose full name is Tyler Gregory Okonma, has previously said there is lots of “passive listening” at the weekend, and advocated for weekday releases.
Last year, Tyler told Canadian music journalist Nardwuar: “I think if you put it out during the week, man, that commute to work, or that commute to school… you really have that hour, 30 minutes to really dive in and really listen.”
He suggested much of the music listening at the weekends takes place in settings such as parties, or in the background while people are relaxing, which he said often means people aren’t listening as closely to the music.
But in the same interview, he admitted it could be a “dumb idea” to miss out on almost half the week’s streams and sales.
New releases used to come out on Mondays, after the previous week’s chart had been announced on Sunday evening, but it was changed to Fridays in July 2015.
That was part of a global strategy which saw the music industry launch New Music Fridays in more than 45 countries, after consumer research found fans preferred to listen to music at weekend when they felt they had more time.
But music chart analyst Chris Molanphy agrees with Tyler’s position.
“I never loved that [weekend release] date,” he told BBC News. “I found it kind of weird we were competing with movies and everything like that.”
Films are also predominantly released in cinemas towards the end of the week, usually on Fridays.
Despite the dominance of streaming, physical and download sales of a full album can play a big part in an album’s chart success because of the way they are weighted.
If Chromakopia also tops the US charts, it will be Tyler’s third number one album, despite the fact he has never achieving a top 10 single.
On his website, fans can buy different vinyl versions of the new album, bundled with original merchandise.
“He’s a marketing genius,” Molanphy said. “Tyler knows how to package his albums, his covers are beautiful to look at.”
A report last year found only 50% of vinyl consumers own a record player, making the cover art especially important.
Tyler’s 2019 album Igor, with its striking pink design, remained on the Billboard vinyl chart for 160 weeks.
The rapper has previously won the Grammy for best rap album twice, and four of his previous albums reached the top 10 in the UK.
Not everyone has been as complimentary of Chromakopia’s Monday morning release, however.
Music business journalist Eamonn Forde called it a “marketing gimmick”.
“The entire point of streaming is you need to get as much of a head of steam as possible in a chart week,” he said. “Every minute counts.”
Even if the ploy worked for Tyler, subsequent artists could experience the law of diminishing returns.
“Hip-hop is renowned for trying new sales tactics,” Molanphy said.
“It’s possible it will set a model for other artists to follow, but not everybody is Tyler, The Creator.”
On this week’s singles chart, Gigi Perez scored the number one spot with Sailor Song, ending the nine-week reign of Sabrina Carpenter’s hit Taste.
