Windowing and its Financial Impacts to Creative Artists

Content Creation, Supply, and Valuation
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Institutional Affiliation
Content Creation, Supply, and Valuation
1 Discussion: Windowing
For several decades, the term “windowing” has been used in the media industry to refer to a concept where an artiste releases one or more lead singles before a final album is released (Garcia et al., 2020). Windowing can be done a month or two before the official release date of the album. During this time, major activities for both producers and the artists remain to be drawing a marketing plan accompanied with the making digital downloads, digital and terrestrial radio plays, or streaming available to the consumers. Many creators like renowned Kanye West have preferred the concept of windowing over the release of an entire album at once during the official release date. For instance, the American rapper’s 10th album Donda was released on August 29, 2021, although some of the tracks in the album had earlier been heard by his many fans (Suskind & Kinane, 2021). On August 5, 2021, he held a listening party ahead of the album release, where he announced its live streaming on Apple Music. Earlier on July 22, 2021, the album made its public premiere at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. While this approach has had some criticism, Kanye, including other Hollywood stars, has always adopted the concept before album releases.
2 Financial Impacts
Studies have shown that the windowing strategy significantly allows companies in the television broadcasting industry to capture an increasing share of the consumer population, especially those that consume free-streaming content (Content Creation, 2021). Out of the 55 percent of consumers streaming free content, between 13 and 20 percent are more likely to become paying customers of other content not subjected to windowin...