Bluey The Album set to go viral with global vinyl, CD and streaming release

Bluey claimed No. 1 on the ARIA pop charts and is set to break more records with its big international release as the TV show’s empire expands.

You can imagine Joff Bush’s eyes popping out on stalks cartoon-style when he saw his Bluey The Album offered for resale for $700 online.

A limited run of 500 special picture disc and blue vinyl editions of the soundtrack to the children’s television titan were released in Australia in July for Record Store Day and sold out.

Bush went out and bought a few himself on the big release day because “I’ve never had a vinyl record for sale in a shop so I was pretty excited.”

Bluey composer Joff Bush spotted his debut record for $700 online. Picture: Supplied

But he jokes he’s sitting on a potential goldmine to rival the online opportunists.

“I got 10 of these rejected test pressings which say Albium on the side; they’re misspelt. That is so much better,” Bush says, laughing.

“But I’ve got to give them to the other people who worked on the music.”

Bush and all the stakeholders in Team Bluey, including its creators, producers and the ABC and BBC who commissioned it, will be receiving much bigger royalty cheques from countries all over the world after this week.

Bluey The Album goes global this week. Picture: Supplied.

Bluey The Album, in all its shiny blue vinyl glory goes global on October 1, with the music also released on CD and streaming services worldwide.

The 17-track record made its historic chart debut in Australia in January as the first ever children’s album to claim No. 1 on the ARIA charts.

It also topped Billboard’s Kids Chart in the US where it has been available on streaming services, propelled by more than 11 million monthly viewers since it began screening on Disney in late 2019.

Australia’s favourite family of heelers have generated a multimillion merchandise franchise. Picture: Supplied.

Bluey The Album’s release in the UK, NZ and the Americas comes as the kids series about Australia’s favourite Blue Heeler family also finalised new broadcast deals for Europe.

Bush is ridiculously excited for the music he created in a Brisbane studio with a close-knit crew of co-writers and musician mates to go worldwide.

Its first vinyl print run for the international launch sold out on pre-order so the distributors overseas rushed straight into a second one to meet demand. Vinyl is the top of the music range on offer with the records retailing for about $55 in Australia.

Bush with some of the vintage instruments used to create the soundtrack. Picture: Supplied.

“I think there’s a bit of romanticism around releasing the record on vinyl. People my age with Bluey aged kids always ask ‘What was your first album?’ And I don’t think we want that question to shift to ‘What was the first album you streamed?’” Bush says.

“It’s not the same as having the physical thing, your first album.

“We recorded the album in the studio next door with all this old 70s gear because we wanted it to have this classic sound so it feels like its home is on vinyl.

“It is mind-blowing to think there are kids who will one day say Bluey was their first album.”

The music does indeed have a classic – and classical – sound to it, matching the intent of its creator Joe Brumm and producers Charlie Aspinwall and Daley Pearson to develop a show with both adult and children’s appeal.

You can feel the warmth of traditional instruments like violin, horns and flute on Bush’s original compositions including the popular Bluey’s Theme Tune, Keepy Uppy and Here Come The Grannies.

The music also presses all the right nostalgia buttons for parents with its flurries of instantly recognisable classical pieces including Mozart’s Rondo à la turca in the favourite The Magic Xylophone episode and Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers in the Ice Cream episode.

Bush once got a message from a friend who said their three-year-old child had just asked Alexa to “play some Mozart!”

“There’s a big history of classical music in kids TV, starting with the Warner Bros cartoons taking pieces like Wagner and turning it into Kill The Wabbit,” Bush said.

“And it’s just fun to murder these pieces, there’s something inherently cheeky about it. I once said it was like putting ice-cream on caviar.”

As the soundtrack finds its way into the wider world – particularly its launch in the UK and Europe – Bush’s phone and inbox will be flooded with more fan mail. And probably some enterprising “we should work together” proposals from EDM producers.

A Bluey The Album remix to propel its music onto the singles charts – and significantly boost its streaming numbers – seems inevitable even as the composer says he hasn’t contemplated that potential yet as he is neck-deep in composing and recording the music for the third series.

“I would love to do something like that so if anybody wants to talk about that, I’m up for it. Every time I have to do a dance track, I’m always having to go to YouTube to figure out how to use this production technique or that one,” Bush says.

Who doesn’t love blue vinyl? Picture: Supplied

Bluey The Album in its vinyl and CD physical formats is just one of the rapidly multiplying merchandise spin-offs from the show.

The recent broadcast deals in Europe naturally coincided with the BBC appointing new licensing agents to sell the plethora of plush toys, T-shirts, pyjamas, cups, water bottles, bed linen, figurines, pool toys and play sets through 24 more countries.

The appetite for all things Bluey remains insatiable with the show scoring half a billion plays on ABC iview in Australia alone and its books selling more than one million copies.

Now viewed in more than 60 countries, its earning power will enjoy an exponential boost as it continues to reach into other untapped markets.

Mad musical scientist Joff Bush with his instrument treasures. Picture: Supplied

Bush still hasn’t wrapped his head around the Bluey world takeover.

“I’m in such a bubble in this studio,” he says.

“It’s really hard to know how things are going until you get a random email from someone in Sweden and it’s the most lovely thing in the world for someone to reach out as a fan because I know I would never be able to do that.

“And then I have to wipe that all clean and go back to work pretending this is just a small little show I’m working on otherwise I’ll be thinking the whole time ‘Just don’t stuff this up!’”

Originally published as Bluey The Album set to go viral with global vinyl, CD and streaming release