John Mayer recently released the first wave of songs for his new album "The Search for Everything," and while these are four amazing songs, what's really amazing is how he chose to release them. A couple of weeks ago, Mayer posted on his Instagram account a series of pictures that outlined the new album cover and revealed the first four songs from the album, along with a fairly vague message:

"The Search for Everything" Wave One 1/20/17
The album will be released four songs at a time. Every month.
There were too many songs to ever get out the door at once.
1. Moving on and Getting Over
2. Changing
3. Love on the Weekend
4. You're Gonna Live Forever in Me
I love you and I thank you for waiting.
Here we go. X

This is a huge step away from the traditional way of releasing new music. Kanye West released his album "The Life of Pablo" in a similar way when he modified the original versions of songs even after the album was on the market. It was a bit sloppy though. It almost seemed as if Kanye regretted the way he finished songs or wasn't completely happy with them in the first place. John Mayer is doing something completely different.

To me, it seems that John Mayer is so incredibly proud of the work he's done that he wants it to be appreciated. As a songwriter myself I can completely understand why this would be important to him. There is so much time, thought, and energy that goes into writing and recording a song that it's sad to me when songs get looked over. In any great album, there are songs that just get looked over or forgotten, simply because of the fact that there are better songs on the album. This is likely the reason for the "single's craze." Artists have been releasing singles for years, but not in the same way artists today do.

Traditionally artists would release singles prior to their album release, and that single would often be on the album as well. Today everyone is releasing singles. Just straight up single songs that have no connection or intention or being linked to an album. This is great for the artists because a good single can blow up and give them a following, but it deprives the listener from actually being able to connect with the artist.

This is why I love the way John Mayer is releasing this new album. It's really the best of both worlds. These waves of songs are small enough that they don't overwhelm the listener, and also small enough that every song can be played in one sitting. They are also long enough and meaningful enough that the listener is able to make a connection to the artist. This is an incredibly bold and innovative move by Mayer, and I think the industry will be seeing a lot of similar album releases in the future.