Six months later, Trilogy went Platinum. Mixtape reissues, though getting more common, are a recent development. Since clearing samples can get expensive, label executives have traditionally been reluctant to spend the money. Dan Runcie has covered the varying ways modern artists are getting mileage out of their music in his must-read newsletter, Trapital , capturing the evolution from the old days in the visual below. Part of why artists re-release mixtapes today is to sustain momentum between albums, but when The Weeknd re-packaged Trilogy , the mixtapes comprised his entire catalog.
This allowed him to position the collection as the culmination of everything that came before it, an achievement his fans were part of for supporting him in the early days. More importantly, he laid the foundation for streaming success. Getting onto these platforms earlier allowed him to sell digital versions of Trilogy , and pull-in streaming revenue while he was busy working on his next project. This was absolutely critical since touring is the most lucrative revenue stream for most artists.
Case in point, after amassing 5. Including streaming numbers, the collection has since reached 3x multi-platinum certification. By November , The Weeknd had firmly rooted himself as one of the biggest stars in music.
Beyond the stage, he dated Selena Gomez, experiencing a completely different level of fame and spotlight. I bring this up because it seems like the perfect time for an artist to lose sight of their roots and risk alienating day-one fans. On the 5-year anniversary of the release, The Weeknd announced a limited-edition collection of 1, box-sets, each including Trilogy and all three individual mixtapes on vinyl, a special-edition photo set from the mixtape era, and exclusive apparel commemorating the project.
The entire collection sold out in hours, leaving fans begging for a restock on Twitter. With only a thousand units available, the anniversary release is on the opposite side of the spectrum from his mixtape strategy. While releasing the mixtapes for free drove listener acquisition through accessibility, the anniversary collection limited access to a select few, using exclusivity to heighten demand and reward his most attentive fans.
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. If you have roughly a thousand true fans like this also known as super fans , you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune. By limiting availability, he chose to leave money on the table in favor of rewarding his day-ones and renewing interest in his mixtapes.
The prospect of a restock or another surprise-release likely caused many fans to track his social feeds even more obsessively, and the scarcity created an aftermarket for the set, which is still active today. Throughout the Trilogy product lifecycle, The Weeknd has shown the importance of using the right strategy at the right time, depending on the goal.
In this case, he utilized a freemium approach to build an audience as an unknown entity in the early days. From there, he used thoughtful differentiation to re-release his mixtapes, both monetizing the material and building a foundation for streaming success. The beauty of the Trilogy playbook is that each iteration is anchored to the exact same source material. Sure, he spun up customized merch and photos probably printed from the early days of his Instagram , but other than the three bonus tracks on Trilogy , the music is recycled.
I did, however, download all three mixtapes and made it a point to buy Trilogy when it came out. I can also vouch for the energy of his first tour, catching him in Austin in October pictured below. It was one of those shows where the entire crowd knew every word, and nobody took their seat the entire time - even through multiple encores. Pretty amazing for an artist who had yet to sell a single record. Leave a comment.
Share Good Better Best. Click the link we sent to , or click here to log in. Good Better Best Subscribe Sign in. About Archive Help Sign in. Share this post. The Weeknd's Mixtape Trilogy How early packaging decisions helped pave the way to superstardom.
Jan 12, Through creative packaging strategies, he has leveraged the mixtapes to: Build one of the most loyal fanbases in music Position himself for the streaming era Reward day-one fans for their loyalty. Create your profile. Take total stock of the intricate, interlocking horrors facing us this decade or seek peace in distraction or denial.
Pandemic-era pop culture shares this dilemma. Creatives never seem quite sure how thick to lay it on, whether our peaking nihilism is best addressed via dire allegory or brutal directness, whether our entertainment ought to even mirror our circumstances at all. The choice to drop an album the moment a wave of cancellations struck live concerts, award shows, and television performances ultimately blazed a trail for pop-music peers worried that releasing an album in , unaided by the normal network of public appearances, was akin to screaming into a void.
He echoed the sentiment in a GQ interview last fall, suggesting that his alter ego had its limits and setbacks. At the time it felt as though Tesfaye was minding the direction of the charts, attaching his name to a sound that was a surefire path to a smash hit. A few album cycles later, his knack for melodies has grown to match the breadth of his ideas about new territories to explore. The new music luxuriates in the joy the Weeknd gets in throwing his loyal listeners for a loop.
Dawn tries a lot, often at once, but the partnerships between Tesfaye and Daniel Lopatin, best known as Oneohtrix Point Never whose edifying balance of avant-garde sonics and pop smarts powers their collaborative work on earlier projects , and between Tesfaye, Martin, and Holter strike a useful balance.
The hooks hit hard, and the production is full of surprises, of unexpected combinations of disparate ideas and collaborators. Tesfaye had been working on a batch of songs informed by a bout of pandemic depression and inertia last year but began to yearn for a fresher approach. Instead of leaning on lurid stories about lives in disrepair, he dreamed up a new concept about leaving that darkness behind.
Dawn sees value in the slick, synthetic sonics of the era but rarely settles for simple pastiche.
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