I am not so certain if it already happened in the Philippines but there is an upcoming or maybe an ongoing trend of including advertisements in the albums of artists and bands.

This “experiment” will initiate on  the upcoming album of Mariah Carey which will more likely turn out as an oversized, magazine/booklet-style album containing advertisements. Brandweek.com mentions the release of Mariah’s new album “Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel on Sept. 15, is a 34-page co-production with Elle magazine  that includes lifestyle ads from Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffens,  Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism.” If this move by her label is successful, same would be done to other releases of other artists such as Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Kanye West, among others.

The said move is one of the responses by music labels to dropping music sales and as well as to ease out the effects of struggling global economy. Aside from these strategies, music labels have been finding ways to improve revenues, borrow money, raise capital, and cut costs just like what other companies are doing in the midst of this prolonged recession.

Now the questions are, will this be a good option to boost the dropping sales and revenues of those labels or will this just be a temporary solution, much to say just a fad especially at the digital age when everyone can just download and share. Will music enthusiasts even buy this idea?

In my opinion, ad-supported or not, I will buy the album of any artist I like as long as the music or the songs  are really good. The thing is people would want a taste of something before they get the whole package. If an album just contain a junk, then still they won’t bite it. But for sure this is one thing which dedicated fans will look forward to.