The first weekend of January gifted music fans with two high-profile albums. Along with Gunna's long-awaited DS4EVER album, which included Young Thug and 21 Savage among other stellar features, The Weeknd dropped his brand new Dawn FM album on Jan. 7.
Dawn FM includes 16 songs and lasts 52 minutes with feature verses from Tyler, The Creator and Lil Wayne. The album sonically and thematically builds on his March 2020 After Hours smash hit album, along with elements of songwriting from his prior works like The Trilogy.
Ahead of the album's release, a post on Twitter surfaced that explained how there will be no physical copies of Dawn FM (CDs and Vinyls) would be available for purchase in the album's first week, surely affecting his overall sales. The Weeknd responded to this post saying sales were not his priority, and that he was only concerned with getting the album to fans as soon as possible so they could experience it in some capacity: "This doesn’t matter to me. what matters is getting to experience the album together with the fans during these times."
Via Twitter/@theweeknd
This response is likely alluding to The Weeknd's New Year's post last week, where he announced the impending album by saying he wanted to help fans heal from the mayhem of the COVID-19 pandemic with new music: "Happy new year! Everything feels chaotic again. Music can heal and that feels more important than another album rollout. Let's just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people... XO."
Even without physical sales, The Weeknd could still snatch the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. But, Gunna will probably give him a tight race.
How do you feel about The Weeknd's approach to this album?