Tuesday 4th September 2012 by David Renshaw

Tags: The Killers, Mumford & Sons

The music industry's policy of saving big album releases for the end of everyChr year has been criticised by leading voices in the retail industry today.

Generally, major labels wait to release albums they suspect will sell particularly well and release them between September and December in the run up to Christmas. The coming months will see Muse, The Killers, Robbie Williams, Mumford & Sons and many more releasing new albums, often on the same day.

This method is 'problematic' according to those in the retail business, who argue that key sales are being missed out on by labels putting everything out at once.

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, the Entertainment Retailers Association's Kim Bayley said: "Cramming all the key releases in the fourth quarter is problematic both for consumers and retailers."

However, labels claim that the lead up to Christmas is too lucrative a time for them current strategy to change.

Brian Rose, commercial MD of Universal UK, argued that: "We don't put all our hopes into an autumn release period. We are very much a 52-weeks-of-the-year business but there are solid business reasons to release a lot of them in the autumn.
 
"In December we'll sell 20% of all the albums we'll sell in a year, so it's still a big opportunity."

What do you think? Are there too many big albums released in quick succession? Should labels stagger these throughout the year instead?