Out of all the classics, do you know what remains as my favourite drop till date? If I have to be brutally objective (excluding tunes that I love because of sentiments attached to them). It is, surprise, a nearly forgotten TWIIG x Pitchback ID that premiered on Tomorrowland many summers ago. While this might not make sense, yet sometimes I find myself blasting that drop on repeat while surfing through my SoundCloud’s collection of unreleased works. And truth be told, I can’t and probably won’t stop enjoying it.
This has led me to write about the special effect that unreleased tunes have on us listeners. “Animals” perhaps remains as the most infamous ID in recent history, premiering on YouTube in 2013. The untitled spectacle remained without a creator for weeks, and people had a lot of fun speculating about it (many even believed that it was a Hardwell and GTA collaboration… on Spinnin’?). After its successful campaign (using an euphemism), the Dutch label religiously stuck to this marketing tradition, premiering further colossal hits like “Tsunami” and “Flute” in similar way. DV&LM brought this idea on another notch (followed by W&W), debuting the “reverse game”: now, the artist was known to the public except the title, and most importantly, the release date. In many cases, the ID was released after years of delay, just when the hype was settling to bottom of the barrel.
Thus, the question still remains: why do people love this strategy?
Sure, it is frustrating to not know the creator of a catchy WIP you just heard. Add to that, knowing that it won’t ever see light of the day. In my case, it is the endeared Pitchback x TWIIG ID.
However, psychology points to details that doesn’t meet the eye at a first glance. The “scarcity” phenomena, which we have seen in other forms of collection mania, urges people to feel more attracted to things that are shrouded in an enigma unexplainable, and hence not available to them easily. That’s why there’s absurd prices being paid for limited-stock sneakers, or unique NFT artworks. Instinct often push people to desire what’s “forbidden” or “rare”. Hence the effectiveness of publicity gimmicks (such as “this offer expires in 24 hours”) works like a charm.
Fascinatingly, the magic of IDs tricks us with the same phenomena, creating an illusion, and at the same time adds the much-needed mystery, making most wonder whether the rare tune will ever be revealed, if the drop has been changed over time, or whether it even features the names upvoted by the community. It’s a guessing game that draws engagement wildly.
Nowadays, it seems this method is fading slowly, as imprints prefer to focus on “pre-saves” (an useless practice that I have never used). Hopefully, artist will keep delivering a sane dose of IDs, after all, who doesn’t like a puzzle!
What do you think?
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