Beyoncé’s 2013 self-titled album was released without a traditional advance marketing campaign.
Beyoncé was released unexpectedly on December 13, 2013, through the iTunes Store. Beyoncé announced the project with an Instagram video describing it as a visual album, and the release arrived with 14 songs and 17 accompanying music videos.
The surprise strategy attracted enormous attention because listeners had received no conventional lead-single rollout, release-date countdown, or advance press campaign. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and made Beyoncé the first woman to have her first five studio albums debut at number one in the United States.
The album includes “Drunk in Love,” “Partition,” “Flawless,” and “XO.” It is often called the “visual album” or “visual album Beyoncé” to distinguish it from the artist’s name, but Beyoncé is the official title. Lemonade followed in 2016 and used a very different premiere strategy through HBO.