“Seasonality is important for us with our Latin artists. Yes, end-of-year sales are important. Yes, Valentine’s Day sales are important. Yes, Mother’s Day sales are important. But do you know what is more important? That you have a hit.” — Luis Estrada, managing director, Universal Music Latino
“If you are a superstar, you will never sell more than in that two-month period. It would take you six or seven months to sell that same amount, so yeah, it’s still worthy of it. Now if you are a baby artist, you will get lost in that traffic, so it’s not worth spending the money.” — Cindy Mabe, senior VP of marketing, Universal Music Group Nashville
“I don’t think we hold off on pushing [out] albums in the fourth quarter. It’s important to put a record out when it’s ready just based on the single being at a point where it’s maximized on radio, the intensity of the heat on a street level and club level.” — Chris Atlas, senior VP of marketing, Island Def Jam
“With a fourth-quarter release, you’re actually setting the tone for Q1. We’re very cognizant of that. You have a thrust of momentum so what we’re doing today affects 2014. The fourth quarter is about establishing artists who are going to sell albums.” — Charlie Walk, executive VP, Republic Records
“Music is still a very popular gift. You still see tremendous spikes in Q4, typically around bigger releases. But you also have to be really careful. If you release something in Q4, you have to have a solid campaign to cut through the noise.” — Jason Feinberg, VP of digital marketing strategy, Epitaph/Anti- Records
“Typically here we try to stay away from releasing things in December. We’re not dealing with the same kinds of consumers that maybe the majors are, so we don’t put our top records there. It’s not a priority.” — Pablo Douzouglou, director of marketing, Beggars Group
