Do you think pre-release singles are still beneficial in building hype, or do they do more damage than good for a group's comeback performance?

or does it heavily depend on what specific group is doing it?

A kpop pet peeve of mine is pre-release singles, bc I see something dropped and get excited to hear the album and then find out the album is only out next month. I love the "old" tradition of checking the title track, followed by the album and b-sides listening session. When the releases are scattered around not only is it hard to keep track, but kinda kills the mood and hype for a specific comeback. Instead of the comeback feeling like a distinct era/event, they're all a bit interchangeable and forgettable even. But that's just my personal preference.

In terms of how beneficial it can be for a group's comeback, it can work really well in some cases like obviously Blackpink, aespa (especially last year), etc. But when this is done for groups that are less known, it seems that they drop a single out of nowhere, disappear and then drop another one with the entire album which makes the cb roll-out confusing to the casual kpop fans who these lesser known groups heavily rely on. So it ends up having the opposite effect when the pre-release has a meh reception, killing the hype for the main release. Recent example is TWS, they dropped the pre-release like a month ago, and then dropped the album this week and the hype which was already minimal before the pre-release, is literally non existent now. What exactly did they gain from it?

I can't help but feel like the intention is good, but execution is poor. Let's face it, it's hard to make the perfect choice of what to release before the album as an appetizer, what to serve as the main dish later, and have the entire comeback work as a cohesive and solid meal. Even big companies like SM, HYBE, etc succeed in some choices but miserably fumble in others. Is it sheer luck, is it solely dependent on how good the pre-release is, or does none of that matter if the group isn't very relevant? If so, why do the labels of these smaller groups still do pre-releases? Do they still not get the memo? Or am I missing something and there's actually some sort of benefit from it?

tl;dr:

1. Pre-releases for big groups vs smaller groups: good or bad strategy?

2. Do you like pre-releases and do they make you more interested in a group's comeback?

Quote from BlackpinkHouse

Double title track is better. It gives fans two songs to get crazy over and allows for 2x the chances of a song going viral in the GP.

Prerelease single usually saps hype away from the main title or it ends up as a flop that just wastes promotional $$.

I would understand the double title track strategy rather than risking it and doing pre + main title track, for smaller groups. For bigger groups who are more focused on specific goals (billboard charts, youtube records etc), it can end up being counter productive bc the streams/views would be split in half.

I think pre-release strategy for lesser known groups is completely irrelevant and sometimes even detrimental.

Quote from menthols

smaller groups just follow industry trends. they don't have enough resources to take risks so no choice but to play it safe. as far as liking pre-releases, i don't care what it's called as long as it's not slop

I totally agree with you on the following the trend thing if they are from smaller companies, but what about less relevant groups from bigger companies? Surely they are way more able to read the room and understand what works and what doesn't after one trial and error...