If they want to keep the regional idea going, at least release it at noon or something regionally so most people are awake and aware of the release so they can watch it quicker.
Yeah, then people will just start hounding the Australians at 8 pm EST instead of 8 am EST
I didn't think it would resolve that problem, but I look at it this way:
What time are most people awake?
What time are most people able to watch or listen to a new song/music video?
What time for a release is going to give the song the best chance of getting the most eyes and ears on it immediately?
I don't think the answer is at midnight.
For us hardcore fans, whatever, we will listen the first chance we can, but the casual fan is the one who needs to be bought over by this. The casual fan is not staying up to listen and the casual fan may forgot by the next morning to even check it out. Sure the band will send out more reminders, but in this day and age, it really helps to get best initial rush as possible so it has the best chance of trending in a world where media quickly fades if it isn't caught on by it's target audience fast.
I think you guys are blowing this all WAY out of proportion here. Most of the plays for singles are probably going to come from YouTube rather than anywhere else, since it's the only place besides SoundCloud where singles actually can thrive (Spotify and retailers tend to be more album or playlist driven). That's where most casual fans are going to hear the song for the first time. This is going to be bolstered by several facebook/Twitter/Instagram reminders throughout the week to make sure it hits the most people possible. Larger artists with bigger followings and more clout will also typically play the songs on live television shows. It's not like they're going to just drop the song once and not tell anybody about it. Albums and Singles have an initial standardized roll-out at midnight on Friday in every timezone, with supplementary things being dropped in the following week or two. These include things like lyric videos, music videos, vertical videos (which seems to be a trend now), etc. It'll show up in Spotify notifications for certain people too later in the day, and the label will typically also show support for it. Only about 1%, if that, of the people who hear the song for the first time will listen to it around midnight when it immediately drops. Everyone else will hear it throughout the week.
Hell, I'll use myself as an example. I like Muse a lot. I consider myself a fan of Muse. For the last two albums, the first place I heard most of their singles was YouTube. I don't recall ever listening to the singles that much on Spotify when they first came out. I almost always listened to the song initially about midway through the day or during the evening when I saw the music video on Reddit or Facebook or something. It was the same with Haken, for the most part. I don't even remember excitedly waiting for anything but the final album release, and even then I just listened to it on the bus.
Y'all have to remember that the perspective that this forum that is dedicated to the artist has is different than the perspective of the GP. The current system is fine, tho I think prog and metal bands in general should put a little more emphasis on videos. It's one of the areas where they've been really lacking in both execution and roll-out (case in point: Spock's Beard's last album).
I REALLY don't think that is as much of a problem as you think it is
No probably not, but can't the release be improved? I'll admit my own annoyance of having to wait until midnight is making me want to argue for something better, but I think I listed some reasoning to show this can be better unless someone can explain why releasing at midnight is best for the band that makes more sense. I'm open ears.
Releasing it at midnight instead of 8 AM gives the band 8 more hours worth of streaming revenues.
Then why didn't they release it two days ago?
It's industry standard practice to release music on Fridays now. iirc it has something to do with most people getting paid on Friday so they're more likely to purchase the album.
More info here