Adele and Bowie know the secret of selling an album

It's not just the music, it's the anticipation

Adele at the 2012 Brit Awards, where she won Best British Female Solo Artist and British Album of the Year for 21 (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

There are three ways of telling the world you have an album coming out. The first is to tell the world you have an album coming out. But, talk about old-fashioned.

Far more effective are the methods being employed by two great stars. First there is David Bowie. He memorably surprised the world in 2013 by suddenly releasing a single without any warning and inevitably thus gaining maximum publicity, from that morning’s Today programme onwards. The album duly followed with not a single interview or public appearance from its creator. It was an artistic and commercial success.

This week following rumours from somewhere (and perish the thought they should emanate from anyone connected with the artist) that the new Bowie album would be like no other he had ever made, a spokesman would only confirm that there will be a new album entitled Blackstar released on 8 January 2016, Bowie’s birthday. A single of the same name will be released on 20 November. No further clues were given.

Then there is a newer vintage of superstar, Adele. On her shoulders is a heavier responsibility. The music industry is banking on her album to save its bacon. Like David Bowie’s single it will also be released on 20 November, so a bit of a fight for the limelight there that neither probably wanted.

The album by Adele, called 25, has been preceded by a video for the single "Hello", which has had 27m views, so the music industry might not be rushing to the food banks just yet. The album itself has been enigmatically teased with TV adverts during the X Factor showing a blank screen, while snatches of music played and no names named. Adele has since said she feared people might think it was a John Lewis advert. That’s worrying for a singer, I suppose, as people could then return the music if they could buy it more cheaply elsewhere.

What Adele and Bowie are showing is that an album by a great artist is not just about the music. It is an event. With his previous album, Bowie just sprung a surprise on us, and that is certainly one way of marking an event. But teasers, rumours, terse denials, mystery and enigmatic ads are also effective. They add to the anticipation. And anticipation is part of the process of enjoying art (as well as helping to sell it, of course). The enjoyment can start well before an album is released. Sometimes, the anticipation is the best part.

Perceptions count when it comes to prize shortlists

The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction is awarded next week. Opinions can differ on the shortlist. I’m a little surprised that If This Is A Woman, Sarah Helm’s revealing and extremely moving book about Hitler’s concentration camp for women at Ravensbruck, didn’t make it on to the list. But, more pertinently, it is perhaps a little unfortunate that the small publisher Atlantic Books has half of the six shortlisted books, and Atlantic’s former chief executive Toby Mundy is the new director of the Samuel Johnson Prize. There is not the slightest suspicion of any sort of fix. It is more, as I pointed out last year, when the Turner Prize had three alumni of Glasgow school of art on the shortlist and one of the judges was the head of a Glasgow art festival, that public perceptions should be borne in mind.

We want cheap seats not chocolate buttons

I hadn’t realised, until I was alerted by a reader, that the insidious growth of expensive 'premier' seats in theatres can also be accompanied by often unwanted, and often far from cheap, goodie bags. The reader booked for three people and a disabled friend in a wheelchair to see a matinee performance of the excellent Farinelli and the King at London’s Duke of York’s theatre. The only suitable wheelchair space and adjacent seats were in the 'blue seats' (don’t ask). The blue seats were £74.50 each - £59.50 plus £15 for a box of goodies. The goodies consisted of an 187ml. plastic bottle of 'best value' (i.e. cheapish) South African wine, (perhaps a boon in the evening but not really wanted in the afternoon), a small bag of crisps; a sachet of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Buttons and a programme. Farinelli and the King stars the great Mark Rylance, a fellow campaigner for broader access and cheaper seats. Mark, persuade them to drop the blue seats, throw away the wine and the chocolate buttons, and reduce the prices.

d.lister@independent.co.uk

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