by Paul,
on 6/28/2007.

I love albums as much as the next guy, i even prefer listening to albums over shuffling tracks. But i have this thought: could the internet allow you to be successful without albums. My assumption is that historically, it just made economic sense to fill an media with music (a record, tape, or cd). But now, there's no real reason to have an 'album' be anything more than an idea. - be it 4 minutes or 400.

Seems like there's no reason why i can't buy a subscription to sufjan's 'music store' and just get music as he creates it - in whatever form/length/organization he decides.

Thoughts?

Blogger Dan said,

jonathan coulton has made a career of doing that

Blogger Dan said,

not to mention musicians put out these little dittys called EP's...

Blogger Dan said,

oh! and "singles"... with "b sides"

Blogger Paul said,

Thanks dan - great insights!

I guess i'm just wondering if the format/media of the album has defined maintained how music is packaged. or was the media created to suit how artists want to present their music.

So that without a defined format - will there me much of a shift in how we experience an artists music.

Blogger Eric said,

Long live the album! I would say that the format has always been a result of marketing instead of artists preference. For example: In the fifties and sixties, teenagers had disposable incomes for the first time in American history. Thus the 45rpm single became a huge success -- giving birth to the one hit wonder.

I personally love albums. I like to think of music in "sets" like an EP or CD.

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