I like to think that artists who still care about the presentation of their creations work with the producer, engineer and label to craft an album which is an entity in its own right.
As such, I buy precious few albums - but they're all pretty good and I have no hesitations in listening to them through from first track to last, with no skipping inbetween. The rest of my purchases, being a big D&B fan, are 12" vinyl - and they're usually double A sides unless an EP or LP is released, and even then most tracks are as good as each other. The Commix LP is very well put together, and I listened to it all the way through in my car earlier this week without hesitation.
I tend to find that artists who release good music are the artists whose albums are the better put together ones, anyway. If you buy average music, prepare to be disappointed by the lacklustre performance of all the tracks aside from the ones released as chart singles.
The album is not dead, it's just sleeping! If anything, I look forward to it making a strong resurgence over the course of the next few years, it's an amazing tool for an artist who wishes to present their music as a piece of art in itself as well as individual tracks, and I appreciate that :)
awilensky
· 1 year ago
Lack of commas. Good observations. Kerouacian stream of consciousness. Like a good hit single.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
ya I'm terrible on the whole comma thing, but I'm trying to do better. :)
DigitalHobbit
· 1 year ago
I disagree about the album being dead, although this may depend on the artist or type of music. For the most part I still tend to purchase entire albums rather than individual songs. For many of the (mostly independent) artists I listen to, albums are well-arranged, perhaps with changing moods or other elements but often a central theme. There are usually a few songs that stand on their own (and are often released as singles), but in general listening to an entire album is a more gratifying experience for me.
But the important thing is that consumers have a choice now to either purchase the whole album or just individual songs. For much of the popular music out there, you may be right that most consumers will end up buying individual songs because these artists' mass-produced albums are simply not good enough, so perhaps there will be a trend away from albums in these cases.
thattalldude
· 1 year ago
The album isn't dead, yet. There is still hope for it to survive, but we need to break out of a music culture thriving on one hit wonders.
that culture has been around since probably the first vinyl record was sold and I don't see it going away any time soon
GalaxySpectrum
· 1 year ago
Our family has saved all their singles and albums from several generation.
We have several thousand and have managed to get hundreds of them autographed
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
As one who use to have a record collection to be proud of yours would be really cool to see
Steve
· 1 year ago
Well, if you go for artists who make the top 40 or those that consistently get airplay, yeah, I can see a majority of the tracks sucking. Even with indie artists, a majority of the tracks may suck but I think indie artists are a little hungrier to make a living so generally if you purchase an independent artist's cd, you may be less likely to be disappointed; provided you like their style of music.
Mr Truffle
· 1 year ago
hehe where is my attribution for my photo being used? Dodgy :)
Also in regards to your article I run http://www.sleevage.com which blogs about good album art. It seems record labels have really put more effort into good albums by creating special editions and the like. But you're right buying an actual CD is kind of a pain now.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
Sorry about the Mr. Truffle it was found via a image search that didn't lead back to flickr
jbond
· 1 year ago
Sorry, what is this word "buy"? ;)
Just maybe the day of the album is dead, but actually the day of the single is dead too. Long live the EP. I'm seeing more and more fringe musicians issue 3-5 track EPs. This may have more to do with the sheer effort and time involved in creating the full 10 track package.
If and when I discover a new artist, I typically want all their output, not just a single track. And albums make a good way of cataloguing 30 or 40 tracks into 3 or 4 chunks.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
I'm actually the same way when I find new music I really like especially when it comes to trance, house or other similar stuff. I also eagerly await new releases from those types of artists. On the other hand when it comes to the older music of my youth I generally go for the single tracks. For example where I might want Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper I don't necessarily want the whole album it came on. The same could be said for Angie by the rolling Stones. That said theme albums are a totally separate case as one really wouldn't want just one or two songs from Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds or to cheery pick single tracks from any of the Alan Parson's albums. The interesting thing to see will be if those kind of theme album are continued to be made as more and more music is solid by the single track.
Dubber
· 1 year ago
Funny - I was talking about this very thing the other day at New Music Strategies, and came to the conclusion that while the definition of 'the album' may expand because the physical constraints of the medium no longer apply - the simple fact is that artists want to be able to collect and present their music in thematically linked and coherent bodies of work.
The point of the album (or a large part thereof) is still to act as the aural equivalent of the curated exhibition.
And as for consumers, we don't just buy and listen to music. We collect, organise and make meaning from it. Kind of Blue, Mesmerize, OK Computer, Blood on the Tracks all mean something more than the sum of the individual tracks themselves (I mean, who's going to buy 'Fitter, Happier' by itself on iTunes? But the album requires it...).
And so while there may be economic reasons to ditch the album, there are better reasons to reappraise it as a form and consider both how artists want to present their music - and how audiences want to experience it.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
some good points to consider - thanks
Trezire
· 1 year ago
As a musician myself, I disagree on the reasons of the dying of CDs. The true reason is cost and profit to the artist, I sell my CD's in two ways, one is real physical CD that I sell for 8 bucks. It costs me 2-3 dollars per CD so I can only make at max 6 dollars. We also sell it on our web site which costs me nothing so we make 8 bucks. Selling online also has other perks. You have an immensely larger audience, the world. With a physical CD you only have the audience in the area you can get your CD in. If an artist really wants people to listen to the songs in order, just put the track number in the file name of the songs.
Craig
· 1 year ago
Oh gosh, please have someone proofread the article next time.. it was really hard to read with the spelling errors and grammar slip-ups.
With that said, I think singles and albums both have a place together. We just happen to have more choice now in hearing only what we want when we want.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
it always amazes me in this day of AOL h0x0r speak peoplae are given such are time over honest spelling or grammar errors. Part of it as well is sometimes there is too much of a reliance on spellcheckers rather than the english lessons we learn 40 some years ago and have been bastardize between then and now.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
doesn't help either when one can't go back and edit the spelling errors in the comments either :)
mr. scruff
· 1 year ago
I couldn't agree less. As a kid, sure, I only listened to the latest hits. But apart from those one-hit wonders it's really much more relaxing to listen to an entire album than to listen to one great hit after another.
When in a physical music store you actually find less CD singles/EP's than in the pre-digital age.
You're right about one thing: I wouldn't buy an album in an online store. If only for the fact that a digital album is almost the same price as a physical album, but the quality is less and you don't get a nice physical object that has been shipped to you from halfway across the globe.
Digital music should be a LOT cheaper, and even then, a MUCH bigger share of the revenue should go to the artist.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
I do agree that digital media should be cheaper but then also CDs could be a lot cheaper as well because the costs of producing them is significantly less than vinyl but that doesn't happen either.
fakedjs
· 1 year ago
Yes, the album is the promotional tool. It's back to a singles business - where it all started in the first place.
Morgan
· 1 year ago
This is really poorly written.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
thank you Professor
Stephen James
· 1 year ago
Makes me glad that I grew up buying $10-12 newly released CDs (CHR market) in the late 90's. I usually bought them from bookstores, the only place you could in rural Kentucky.
Johnny Cirelle
· 1 year ago
Although there has been a recent shift to a more digital music industry, there are still many out their who have loyalty to certain artists who will purchase an entire album. There are however many more avenues for customers to purchase individual songs which they like. I do appreciate the fact that the album is once again more of a promotional tool for the artists and musicians to attract people to live music displays. I believe the album as well as the song are almost equally important but there are more options for music buyers now. Once artists realize they have more of a grasp in the Music Industry they will leave their record labels behind and create their own revenue streams.
Robert Andrews
· 1 year ago
Oh blah blah blah. It's not just up to the *artists*. The *artists* have been making albums for years. Is the public still interested in a *collection* of works that span a basket of related topics and hues over multiple tracks? I am. I'm not sure that the rest of Web 2.0 culture, with its hyper-attention deficit disorder, can stomach a work as involved as a 45-minute collection, however.
What we're talking about here is the impact of technology on art. If we stop buying albums, if artists stop making albums, then we are doomed to suffer an interminable race to the bottom, in which artists cease thinking broadly and with significant creative merit, and instead resort to making only the catchiest, poppiest of quick-hit tunes. That's something I'd like to rale against.
Crunkfish
· 1 year ago
Artists who only produce two good songs per album? Maybe you should change who you're listening to? The problem is the music industry relies on the majority of people to be largely ignorant of music and just latch on to the catchiest, most conventional tracks around. Most people's musical tastes are probably inspired by adverts for christ's sake.
The reason the music industry's suffering is a result of its own degradation of the quality and integrity in music. I'll always go out and buy an album because I love music and I love the artists I chose to listen to. The big labels are screwing everything up by releasing forgettable, trend-of-the-week pop gash which isn't intended to provoke any long-term reaction. Who can blame mainstreamers for not taking much of an interest?
Johnny Cirelle
· 1 year ago
There is a definite shift to a more digital music industry. I do not think it is solely the artists and musicians fault for this trend. It simply means the album is becoming more of a promotional tool for live music events. This simply means there are more avenues for consumers to get the exact music they want.
All Comments
As such, I buy precious few albums - but they're all pretty good and I have no hesitations in listening to them through from first track to last, with no skipping inbetween. The rest of my purchases, being a big D&B fan, are 12" vinyl - and they're usually double A sides unless an EP or LP is released, and even then most tracks are as good as each other. The Commix LP is very well put together, and I listened to it all the way through in my car earlier this week without hesitation.
I tend to find that artists who release good music are the artists whose albums are the better put together ones, anyway. If you buy average music, prepare to be disappointed by the lacklustre performance of all the tracks aside from the ones released as chart singles.
The album is not dead, it's just sleeping! If anything, I look forward to it making a strong resurgence over the course of the next few years, it's an amazing tool for an artist who wishes to present their music as a piece of art in itself as well as individual tracks, and I appreciate that :)
But the important thing is that consumers have a choice now to either purchase the whole album or just individual songs. For much of the popular music out there, you may be right that most consumers will end up buying individual songs because these artists' mass-produced albums are simply not good enough, so perhaps there will be a trend away from albums in these cases.
See more of my thoughts about this at: http://www.thattalldude.com/main/2008/08/shut-u...
We have several thousand and have managed to get hundreds of them autographed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrtruffle/21486654...
Also in regards to your article I run http://www.sleevage.com which blogs about good album art. It seems record labels have really put more effort into good albums by creating special editions and the like. But you're right buying an actual CD is kind of a pain now.
Just maybe the day of the album is dead, but actually the day of the single is dead too. Long live the EP. I'm seeing more and more fringe musicians issue 3-5 track EPs. This may have more to do with the sheer effort and time involved in creating the full 10 track package.
If and when I discover a new artist, I typically want all their output, not just a single track. And albums make a good way of cataloguing 30 or 40 tracks into 3 or 4 chunks.
The point of the album (or a large part thereof) is still to act as the aural equivalent of the curated exhibition.
And as for consumers, we don't just buy and listen to music. We collect, organise and make meaning from it. Kind of Blue, Mesmerize, OK Computer, Blood on the Tracks all mean something more than the sum of the individual tracks themselves (I mean, who's going to buy 'Fitter, Happier' by itself on iTunes? But the album requires it...).
And so while there may be economic reasons to ditch the album, there are better reasons to reappraise it as a form and consider both how artists want to present their music - and how audiences want to experience it.
With that said, I think singles and albums both have a place together. We just happen to have more choice now in hearing only what we want when we want.
When in a physical music store you actually find less CD singles/EP's than in the pre-digital age.
You're right about one thing: I wouldn't buy an album in an online store. If only for the fact that a digital album is almost the same price as a physical album, but the quality is less and you don't get a nice physical object that has been shipped to you from halfway across the globe.
Digital music should be a LOT cheaper, and even then, a MUCH bigger share of the revenue should go to the artist.
It's not just up to the *artists*. The *artists* have been making albums for years. Is the public still interested in a *collection* of works that span a basket of related topics and hues over multiple tracks? I am. I'm not sure that the rest of Web 2.0 culture, with its hyper-attention deficit disorder, can stomach a work as involved as a 45-minute collection, however.
What we're talking about here is the impact of technology on art.
If we stop buying albums, if artists stop making albums, then we are doomed to suffer an interminable race to the bottom, in which artists cease thinking broadly and with significant creative merit, and instead resort to making only the catchiest, poppiest of quick-hit tunes. That's something I'd like to rale against.
The reason the music industry's suffering is a result of its own degradation of the quality and integrity in music. I'll always go out and buy an album because I love music and I love the artists I chose to listen to. The big labels are screwing everything up by releasing forgettable, trend-of-the-week pop gash which isn't intended to provoke any long-term reaction. Who can blame mainstreamers for not taking much of an interest?