How Brand New’s new album subverted the music industry in plain view—and won

I was sitting at my work desk just like any other day, when I opened up Instagram and saw something that blew my mind: My favorite band, Brand New, unexpectedly announced an album release after eight long years of rumors and build up.

But this announcement wasn't like other surprise albums by superstars like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift. There were no heavily promoted Apple Music premiers, no social media stunts, and certainly no pop-up shops to promote the upcoming tour.

The Instagram post that I saw was actually pretty boring. It was only a few lines of text, and it didn't even say the name of the new album. Instead, it just said the "very limited" and "ships in October."  Read more...