UK’s Entertainment Retailer’s Association against Global Release Friday

The UK’s Entertainment Retailer’s Association has made it known that it doesn’t support Friday as a global release day.

Following a meeting held by UK labels association the BPI on October 3, the ERA’s Director General Kim Bayley stated that while the ERA “believes there are strong arguments in favour of adopting a Global Release Date”, those pushing for the date should be making “a robust assessment of the costs and benefits of choosing any particular day of the week.”

She continued to say, “A Friday release date will undoubtedly cause logistical problems and additional costs for both digital and physical retailers. The current U.K Monday release day allows for restocking and correction of metadata issues well ahead of the busy weekend period, something a Friday release day would not allow…”

Bayley further urged that executives within major companies intent on a Global Friday Release Date should adopt a “more open minded approach” while doing genuine economic research into the impact of their plans.

In Australia, several music industry voices have weighed in on the matter and were in favour of Global Release Friday, though Michael Gudinski of Mushroom Group did say that single releases may need to vary because “different countries go with different singles.”

When it comes to the US, Billboard’s Ed Christman expressed that “everyone in the business appears to unanimously favour Friday as a global uniform street date,” though some indie labels seem to be more in favour of a “Monday and Tuesday.”

With the proposed worldwide release day still up for debate, the ERA maintains that the only justifiable reason for a Friday release date would be “if it resulted in a net increase in sales.”