but would the end of November favour the christmas market? Its probably something to do with end of month sale figures, end of the month release would probably spread sales over two months and so balance a spreadsheet somewhere.

... not least what else is being released that day/week, not only by rival labels/artists, but also the label itself, as they can only really concentrate on one release at a time, e.g. if you want to get good in-store promo at HMV, don't release the same day as (say) Coldplay... and talking of Coldplay, "triple-A" artists' release dates may even be dictated by the financial department of the label, aiming to bolster their results for a poor quarter, which was certainly the case for Coldplay's "X & Y" album.

Sometimes it's down to promotional opportunities - your artist gets offered a high-profile TV slot, but it's too early for your ideal marketing cycle... do you go with it and hope for the best, or bring the release forward? Only this year, the new Paul Simon album was _delayed_ by 2 months so its release would coincide with a tour, despite all the reviews being out already.

And yes, reviews are still seen as key currency, good or bad, and a lot of effort goes into making sure the key publications/websites' reviews appear at the optimal time... certainly all the PR people will (or should) be 100% aware of all the street dates and press dates for their target publications.

PS Might be worth mentioning that the movie industry is different, with deadlines so tight for the major releases these days, that they are often not available for review until too late to be featured in dead-tree media... cynics might suggest this is to avoid bad reviews, which is sometimes true, but mostly it's simply because the launch date was decided 2 years ago, and it's rushed to be ready for its _actual_ release, let alone 4-6 weeks earlier for critics...

These are my observations:

Time of year also seems to be planned around tours a lot. Generally I find my busiest months for gigs are around February, May and November (although November is strangely quiet this year). Which ever they choose, they'll release the album around that time and then play the following year's summer festivals. You don't get as many album releases over the summer as they seem to prefer to promote an album with their own tour first, rather than festival dates. Hardly anything seems to get released in the summer or December/January (I assume they wait until Feb so everyone is back into the post-Christmas shopping routine).

Don't know about the timing within a month, though I think that labels often try not to clash with other high profile releases so they can maximise chart placing.

Has everyone got their tickets for Kate Bush's comeback concert? It's in spring 2012, the last Sunday in March, or the Sunday after that.

I assume sales are still concentrated in the last month or so of the year - do I remember it being something like 50% of annual sales in Nov/Dec or something..? So it makes sense for high profile releases to come out then, I guess. It's interesting if that is still the case as it shows that physical sales are still so important - I assume people don't buy downloads for Xmas.

Ah Christmas! The Beatles always put out a Christmas release....and a standalone single as well!! I always associate them with Christmas (and vice versa) to this day.

Remember when Keith Richard's Run Run Rudolf came out in January..? Sort of seemed 'in character', I suppose...

The review pre-releases mean the album'll be available on Bit Torrent in the next week or so - you can try before you buy.

..are hitting the newstands now, late in the month, with reviews of the 31st Oct releases (Florence) as well as the 21st Nov releases (Bush).

Timelines.

Plus, these days, Kate Bush tells EMI exactly what she wants and they have to obey without question. Nice contract renegotiation there, Kate.

.....when they play dire (it is always dire) stuff over the various features on Soccer A.M. and at the end announce who it is, but always with a release date that is five or six weeks away.

Yet another contribution to the complete destruction of the singles market, not helped, of course, by the fact that 75% of singles are already on an album.

The long and drawn out nature of release schedules has resulted in me 'not' buying far more CDs than I otherwise would have done.