What does new Friday release day mean for music?

No more New Music Tuesdays.

Owl City, Tyrese and Veruca Salt all have new albums this week, but they'll come out on Friday, the new standard release day for albums worldwide.

Experts say the move to a standardized release day is more logical in a music industry increasingly driven by digital sales and streaming.

Previously, albums were released Fridays in Australia, Mondays in the U.K. and Tuesdays in the U.S.

"These release dates and territorial constraints come from an old-fashioned mentality of physical albums being delivered to brick-and-mortar retailers around the world," says Keith Caulfield, Billboard's co-director of charts."That's an outdated way of thinking of things when everything's so instantaneous."

Now, U.S. customers won't have to wait longer than other countries to hear music by their favorite acts. "This is particularly prevalent in a world united by social media, where fans can instantly see friends or family in other countries enjoying the music they want," International Federation of Phonographic Industry

head Frances Moore wrote on the organization's website.

Cutting that wait time also could lessen the demand for pirated music. "If an album leaked the Thursday or Friday before" a Tuesday U.S. release, says Universal Music Group Nashville senior vice president Tom Becci, "you could see the piracy ramp up dramatically over the weekend. You really needed a global street date to combat that."

Promotional schedules for top acts also could be affected by the change. Before this week's change, artists had almost a full week to promote an album globally. "They could appear in Australia, then fly to Asia or Europe, then head to the U.S. to maximize their visibility throughout the week, as the album was released," Caulfield says. "If your album is coming out at the same time around the world, how do you route an artist to appear in different places at once? That'll be a challenge for artists and labels used to a staggered release week."

Billboard will shift its sales-based charts to accommodate the new release day. Now, it will track both albums and individual tracks on a Friday-to-Thursday sales week, as opposed to the Monday-through-Sunday cycle it has used since 1991. The final charts under the old system will publish this Thursday.

While the new system may be digital-friendly, it creates challenges for retailers, who will want to have enough stock on-hand to get them through a busy weekend when distributors aren't delivering. "Having a release date on a Tuesday would give you enough time to sell through a record that was really hot early in the week and still get more in time for the weekend," says Mike Turner, manager at Wuxtry Records in Athens, Ga. "Now, you'll have to anticipate way more."

Last week, Nielsen Entertainment released its mid-year music report, showing a 14% year-over-year increase in music consumption, thanks largely to the growth of on-demand streaming and music sales. The continued decrease of music sales at brick-and-mortar stores, particularly chains and mass-market merchants, was a dark spot in the generally optimistic report. The ordering issues won't make things any easier, and they could give large retailers another reason to cut back the floor space devoted to music sales.

On a positive note, "there are far more people in the stores on weekends," says Nielsen Entertainment analyst David Bakula. "Friday's a day when everybody's about to go out for the weekend with money in their pocket. That's great for music."