In a surprising development that was never hinted toward, Lady Gaga has announced release dates for her upcoming album, ARTPOP. The yet to be named first single off of the album will be released on August 19th, 2013. Pre-orders for the album, and the app that will accompany it, will begin to be taken on September 1st, 2013. The album and app will be released worldwide on November 11th, 2013. Additional information about the album has been released through an image which is currently circulating around social media. The dates were announced through her official website and her social network, LittleMonsters.com. The announcement comes after months of speculation about how and when she will release the album, including
recent rumours that she is set to debut new music through the iTunes Festival in London.
Lady Gaga has yet to comment on the announcement through her Twitter account.
The account was mysteriously stripped of its identity earlier this week, with her profile picture changed to the default egg image and a message: "This interface has been shutdown temporarily. Please check back for updates." Gaga has an amazingly 39 million Twitter followers. Her last album Born This Way was released in 2011 and sold over 1 million copies in its first week.