Deluxe Album Explainer: Why Wizkid, Ayra Starr and many more are jumping on new trend
Deluxe Album Explainer: Why Wizkid, Ayra Starr and many more are jumping on new trend
It is becoming common for artistes to have a deluxe edition for their albums and the attendant commercial and music gains indicate that the act may become even more popular.
While many music lovers would have been delighted when Ayra Starr dropped the deluxe edition of her debut album, 19 and Dangerous, the important takeaway for an analyst would be that ‘deluxes’ are now a firm fixture in the Nigerian music industry.
Of course, Ayra’s would not be the first deluxe album that the industry would witness. That honour may go to 2baba who had an international edition (a form of deluxe) for his Unstoppable album which initially became public in 2008.
The 2010 international edition - had tracks like Only Me, Raindrops, Implication, Be there - brought the success and plaques that Innocent Idibia’s career desperately needed after baby mama sagas, initial album flop and the emergence of other stars (9ice and Mo’Hits easily come to mind).
Afterwards, Simi explored the initiative with Simisola (Deluxe edition) in 2018, on which he featured the pioneer 2baba. Then in 2021, Blaqbonez and Ric Hassani dropped deluxes for their studio albums, Sex Over Love and The Prince I Became, respectively.
The honour of the biggest deluxe in 2021, however, goes to Big Wiz for his Made in Lagos (Deluxe Edition) which commanded multiple Grammy nominations.
In 2022, Burna Boy announced his intention of giving his Love, Damini album a deluxe while Ayra Starr has already walked the talk.
It is then obvious that retouching ‘deluxing’ an album is fast becoming a trend in the Nigerian music industry and here are some reasons artistes are jumping on the new trend and why it will become even more popular in the coming years:
A deluxe album involves expanding an existing album with new tracks, fresh collaborations and remixes of old songs such that some tracks are removed while new ones are added to enhance the overall listening experience.
Because of the significant changes that are made to a deluxe album, it becomes different from the original one, making it a fresh addition to an artiste’s discography.
1. Refreshed Marketing
Given the tangibility of a deluxe album, there is a fresh marketing push for it. This results in increased streaming numbers, improved chart ratings and ultimately, better reception from the audience, in scenarios where the original album didn’t achieve the intended impact or an artiste’s team feels the numbers could still be better.
2. Lazy without being lazy
To come up with an album from the scratch is so much work that I feel artistes don’t get enough credit for dropping one, especially when critics dismiss a body of work with the wave of a hand. A deluxe edition offers an artiste the opportunity to have ‘another’ album without having to start from scratch. From another perspective, you could think of it as slapping an EP on an album.
3. Push for awards and new frontiers
Wizkid refixed Made in Lagos with a deluxe that gave it a gramophone appeal even though it fell short in the end. Ayra Starr added exciting collaborations to the deluxe of her album to push the reach of the album and appeal to a wider audience.
4. Correct previous mistakes
Whether it’s the mixing, the beats, the arrangement or the collaborations, mistakes can happen on an album that an artiste only observes in retrospect. Just like 2baba did with his Unstoppable International Edition, a deluxe offers an opportunity to right previous wrongs and make a statement of talent and quality in the process.
5. More money
It is not a coincidence that before the proliferation of Digital Streaming Platforms (DSPs) in Nigeria, only one deluxe comes to mind and even that came years after the original. A deluxe in the space of months would not have made sense to the Alaba-reliant industry structure.
But with DSPs, artistes are in control of their fate and a deluxe would offer the chance to make more money without expending the kind of resources starting an album from scratch would command.