Out come the big guns in a bustling spring schedule.

As the spotlight dims on the Brits, the nation's record labels are readying a string of major releases as they look to lay the foundations for a big year ahead. Music Week spotlights some of the key albums set to make an impact this spring

Madonna and Coldplay are expected to give the first half of 2008 a commercial boost over the coming months, as their respective record companies schedule new albums from these key artists for the year's busy second quarter.

Madonna will spearhead the frontline release schedule for Warner Bros with her as-yet-untitled 11th studio album on April 28 - her final album for the major - which features collaborations with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams. This will be followed by Coldplay's fourth album for Parlophone. The EMI operation sold more than 10m copies of 2005's X&Y and, alongside new albums from The Kooks and The Verve, the follow-up will underpin the commercial hopes of EMI in the coming months.

With so much focus on new artists during the first few months of the year, a growing trend among labels to present their more-established artists in quarter two, when the dust from new year predictions has settled, is emerging. This year, for example, new albums from Portishead (Island), The Rolling Stones (Polydor) and Arctic Monkeys' frontman Alex Turner & Miles Kane (Domino) will be among those punctuating the Q2 schedule.

HMV's head of music Rudy Osorio believes that the media's growing interest with tips for the year ahead has increased the focus on debuting new artists, such as this year's favourites Adele and Duffy, in the first quarter, with labels then looking to Q2 to bring out the more established names.

"What is significant in recent years is the tips trend has busted out to more mainstream music press and the tabloids," he says. "What that means is these artists can cross to more mainstream audiences far more quickly and the industry is becoming increasingly aware of how it can take advantage of that and speed the process up," says Osorio. "The coverage is no longer restricted to the pages of NME."

Of the second quarter's bigger releases, Osorio believes Coldplay can spark results for the entire business. "For retailers, a new album from Coldplay is fantastic because it will get a lot of press and be an album that acts as a catalyst to get people excited about music and get people into music retail."