I'm curious why the record industry releases albums and CD's on
Tuesdays.  Does it have anything to do with the un/popularity of
Tuesday as a retail shopping day?

Hello.

According to a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of
America, CDs are always released on Tuesdays because Billboard
Magazine, the music industry's leading publication, is released on
Wednesdays. Releasing a recording on Tuesday gives it a full seven
days to achieve a top chart position in the following week's
Billboard.

Source: The Rocky Mountain News, "Wacky Question" August 11, 2000:
" Why are CDs always released on Tuesdays? ... It's because Billboard
magazine, which charts the country's best-selling songs, comes out on
Wednesday, says a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of
America. That gives the magazine a full seven days of sales data on
songs released the week before."

From: Rocky Mountain News/ Newsbank
http://nl12.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0="always%20released%20on%20tuesdays"&s_dispstring=always%20released%20on%20tuesdays%20AND%20date(2000)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2000&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no
If that URL doesn't work, try this shortened version courtesy of
SnipURL:
http://snurl.com/8v5 

search strategy: "always released on tuesdays"

I hope this helps.

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 12 Jan 2003 13:21 PST

komunyakaa:
I'm sorry that you were disappointed with the answer. Consider,
however, that the so-called "follow-up" is merely the opinion of
stevesays-ga, an anonymous person on the internet who cites no sources
for his claims. When judging the credibility of online information,
it's always useful to consider the source. Note that the article that
I cited ( http://snurl.com/8v5 ) is a reputable newspaper quoting a
spokesperson for the Recording Industry Asssociation of America, an
entity that should be considered an authority on this subject.
Regards,
juggler

Given the follow-up comment, I think that this is a good, but not a
great answer.  Thanks!

The above is only coincidentally correct.  The "street date" became
Tuesday in the mid-90's, when media distributors (movies, video, music
etc) consolidated the previously wild street dates to cut shipping and
tighten on early releases.

They institued stringent restrictions to retailers in an effort to
keep the playing field fair.  Nontheless, larger chains such as Target
and Walmart continually put their product out as early as the previous
Wed or Thurs.

The Tuesday date gives usual ample shipping time for equal
distribution around the nation.  Distributors routinely receive
product around a week in advance, unless their is extreme paranoia
from the studio or record company.

They are continually fighting against getting the product into the
consumers hands, while also trying to prevent illicit exports.  Hence
region coding.