Meiyazhagan starring actor Karthi in the lead is an upcoming action drama, produced by Suriya and Jyotika's 2D Entertainment. The movie, written and directed by 96 fame C. Prem Kumar has 96 (2018) composer Govind Vasantha for music. Think Music label, that holds the audio rights to Meiyazhagan announced today that the film's album will release as a whole on August 31, 2024 (Saturday) i.e. tomorrow. 

Interestingly, the release of Meiyazhagan album as whole breaks the single release culture in Tamil cinema after nearly a decade. The trend of releasing multiple singles, instead of the full length album is done to keep the audience constantly engaged.

Industry points the early sightings of this trend to music composer Harris Jayaraj, who presumably released singles of the Lesa Lesa (2003) film by breaking the album release culture. It however remains unconfirmed if Harris Jayaraj was the first in the Tamil film industry to start the single release trend.  

The single release trend was then popularized by composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, whose Evan Di Unna Pethan song from Silambarasan TR's Vaanam (2010), really made other filmmakers take notice of the impact songs released individually could have.

Then came the trend of singles saving the entire film's market as evidenced with the AR Rahman composed Thalli Pogathey which trended on the music charts for a whole year before the film Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (2016)'s release. More recently, a single that has proven to heighten the trajectory of a film's expectation could be pointed towards the Anirudh composed Hukum from Rajinikanth's Jailer. 

However, the single release culture seemed to have taken over the Tamil cine industry irrespective of the album's genre. The idea that a standalone song release strategy would work for music that is supposed to be consumed as an album, was staring to backfire. While the wakeup call had to come from within the Tamil film music fraternity, Harris Jayaraj who supposedly started this single release trend, decided to take the bold move of ending it too. 

Brother starring Jayam Ravi in the lead was supposed to release as a full album, but the scope of a gen z relatable banger like Makkamishi, pushed the makers to rethink that decision. Makkamishi released as a single video song on July 20, 2024. Suriya's 2D Entertainment, and Think Music label with Karthi's Meiyazhagan, are finally taking this step, and the announcement has already created excitement among Tamil film album music listeners.