Dive Brief:

• London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the trade group for the world’s major record labels, is pushing for a global release day of new music: Friday.

• The trade group hopes to combat the increased piracy and falling sales associated with albums being released on different days in different parts of the world. 

• American music retailers are fuming, however. They say they weren’t consulted and that, while they agree on the concept of a coordinated global release day, Friday is simply one of the worst days of the week to pick.

Dive Insight:

CD sales are pretty downbeat, hit by digital downloads — both legit and illegal — and now the rise of streaming music. Revenues from records fell another 4% last year to $15 billion, according to the IFPI. A Friday release, say some musicians and the members of the IFPI, would bring a special note to music sales and preempt the jealous consumer rages that lead them to hear new music so far before the release day that they’re no longer eager to buy.

“When things come out sporadically, people go, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that,'” Crispin Hunt, vocalist of Britpop band the Longpigs, told the Wall Street Journal. “It stops being exciting.” 

Mike Fratt, Homer’s Music general manager and buyer in Omaha, NE, agrees, but says Friday’s not the day. 

“Global release day? Great idea. Friday? A really crazy, poor idea,” Fratt told the Wall Street Journal. The IFPI has made a “weird, kind of creepy, behind-the-scenes decision” that it has “crammed down our throats.”