Why do artists release singles after albums?

Singles promote albums. You have the first single from the album, which usually comes before the album release. Then the string of singles come after the album.

But I know what you mean. Some songs become huge hits around two years after the album's released, like "Rockstar" by Nickelback...that still kept the album over 100 weeks in the Billboard 200.

You have to think of it as a marketing ploy. Artists sometimes wouldn't make this decision; their manager would. People who already bought the album bought it; the singles that keep on coming by are just persuasion to the listeners to who haven't bought it yet.

Yeah I agree, releasing either all or most of the singles first, with the album following makes more sense to me. However, I also see the point in releasing the album first and then having the singles follow. After all, all that singles are used for is to promote the artist and the album, so either way you'll sort of get the same end result. But I would think that by holding off the release of the album, a greater sense of angst and want for the album would build up among the attracted listeners.

My guess is, before, people would buy the singles (physical records), and later, get an album because of the convenience (don't have to juggle a bunch of 45's that only last 3 minutes each). If the album came out right away, the record company would not sell as many singles.

Fast forward to today. Downloading a single is trivial from iTunes. It's equivalent to an album if you collect exactly the singles you want, because you can just put it on your playlist. But if the album comes out first, you're forced to buy the album, and possibly pay for other songs you're not interested in, just to get one or more songs NOW. After the people who must have the song NOW are cleared out, the recording company puts out the single, for additional income.

Yeah, I think that the old way was cooler. It made more sense.

But I also get the concept, of selling a single and having a couple of other special songs on it too. So people get a taste of it, and to decide if they like it/want the whole album, or whatever. But alot of people don't ever buy singles anymore, just because the whole itunes/ipod thing, alot of people buy everything seperatly, or illegally download, nothing is the same anymore.

It's so people can get a little taste of what the album will sound like. Released singles are like the sampler platter of music.

Oh, and so the artist can get the people's opinion ahead of time, to see if it will be a big album or not.

Its Almost every 2 - 3 weeks on youtube for some artist

Radiostations buy very few albums, so more singles = more songs= more royalties. Releasing after the album means that they can get fan feedback and anticipate which songs will get the most requests.

To really know if you do like that album. Nobody wants to waste 10$ on an album that you do not like exept for 1 song.

To get new people to listen to their music. They might not have liked the first single but they might like the soncond one.

You raise some good points here.