Surprise Album Drops

[the captain]

I'm listening to the new Rolling Stone podcast--does any entity or person not have a podcast these days?--and, spurred by Rihanna's Anti, they're discussing surprise album drops. At this point, we've seen albums with little or no notice from Radiohead, Rihanna, U2, Earl Sweatshirt, Beyonce, and Wilco, to name a few.

What are opinions here about the surprise drops? Like them? Hate them? Not care either way?

[Malc]

I'm all for them - no harm in a little surprise every now and then- as long as word gets out amongst the community ASAP. Didn't know a thing about the BB Live in Chicago until someone posted here about it...

[KDS]

I don't mind it.  Although, I think U2 did it the wrong way where it just appeared on folks' iTunes accounts. 

But, I will always prefer tangible product as opposed to downloads. 

[the captain]

Speaking of the tangible product angle, the surprise album phenomenon would be much harder--and maybe impossible or rare enough to be NOT a phenomenon at all. It's one thing to create your album in some secrecy and release the digital version without warning, but planning such a feat while dealing with manufacturing, printing, shipping, stocking the stores, etc... good luck.