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I am writing to a record label that has not released a record for a long time, and here is the first sentence that I have written

It has been a very long time since you have released a new record

My question:

Does present perfect fit in this case?

I know I could write :

"It has been a very long time since you last released a record" implying a specific record (the last one)

or

Your label has not released any record for a long time.

but I ve chosen present perfect"It has been a long time since you have released a new record " because it seems better for me for 3 reasons :

First : I am not talking about a precise record but the act of releasing a record in general.

Second : They have released many records before.

Third : At the time of writing they still have not released any new record

Yves Lefol
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1 Answers1

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Introduction

I am not talking about a precise record but the act of releasing a record in general.

Actually you're talking about a point of time when the last record was released. Otherwise, your sentence won't make much sense - why would you say "It's been a long time since you released a new record" if you didn't imply the most recent one?

They have released many records before.

So what? You still refer to a point of time when the last record was released.

At the time of writing they still have not released any new record.

A period of time when records were released ended, but a non-release period hasn't ended yet. So, the latter can be used in Present Perfect while the other one can't.

Conclusion

Hence, your sentence can be as follows:

It has been a very long time since you released a new record.

However, your alternative sounds even better:

It has been a very long time since you last released a record.