Two weeks ago, Weird Al rush-released his newest single, “Whatever You Like,” through iTunes, and the track sold 21,000 copies, reaching number 104 on the charts. However, there was a problem in getting the track up in a timely fashion (it was delayed a day by a problem getting it up on iTunes) and Al feels like the sales figure is a bit low. In a post on his MySpace blog, Al had this to say about the track:

So… What I Learned From All This So Far:

 

Overall, I'd have to say that the digital experiment was a success. It was very gratifying for me to be able to put a parody out while the original song was still at its commercial peak – and it seemed to be gratifying to the fans as well.

 

I probably won't be as inclined to announce new singles in advance, though. I've learned from hard experience that iTunes is not able to guarantee a time – or, apparently, even a day – that a song will go live on-line. So perhaps it's best for me to wait until a new song is actually available, and THEN announce it.

It’s kind of surprising that Apple can’t ensure that a song will be available on a certain date: they do put albums up on the release date every Tuesday. But apparently, Al hasn’t been put off by the experience—he can probably have a late-career resurgence thanks to digital release methods like this. [via Idolator]