Are albums outdated?

This morning I was listening to a DJ talk about a musician's upcoming album. And for the record for you baby boomers and beyond, by album I mean a collection of music not an LP record. When I heard this I got to thinking. What's the point of releasing an album these days? With today's digital technology and giant single song stores like the iTunes store, is there really any need to write 10-12 songs all at once?

I mean the individual songs on an album are released one at a time anyway, right? And someone out there in musicville is determining which songs have the most potential to be a hit and which ones owwwdn't. Which leaves a bunch of songs on every album that most people never hear anyway.

So why not just write one song and publish it? Then wait a month or two and write another? Rinse and repeat. No albums. Just individual songs.

Someone out there is going to tell me it's all about the money and the long tail. Ok, I get that. But is that a sustainable enough model for the future? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

1 comment for this blog post so far...

  • #1
    August 20, 2010 at 7:08 am

    asudduth

    hmm… I can’t say I really buy too many albums, usually just single songs, however albums still are cheaper than buying all individual songs… and yeah it probably is about money. (You were only going to buy one or two songs, so they make more money when you buy the album) but maybe its about music discovery… If you buy an album because you like a few songs you may discover that some of the other lesser known tracks are also good… just a thought

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