Is The Music Album An Outdated Concept?
from the wheels-of-steel dept
The general idea of the long tail is that instead of focusing on churning out just a few "hits", content producers should put out a wide array of content that appeals to many different niches. Chris Anderson, who coined the phrase, says that a decline in the number of gold and platinum music albums reflects this. But is it the long tail, or is it just that people prefer buying individual songs to full albums these days? Research regularly points out that people think CDs are overpriced, a common sentiment being that you have to buy a bunch of songs you don't want to get the few -- or one -- that you do want. Now, with downloading making it so easy to purchase single tracks, is the idea of the album -- like the television channel -- an outdated one? There doesn't seem to be a lot of point these days in insisting that content be bundled to a particular means of distribution.
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No Subject Given
The recording industry would make several thousand dollars off me alone this year if they were to lower the price of CDs to $5.99-6.99US. I would buy every CD I've ever previously had on vinyl, and then I'd start in on buying the ones I didn't have.
After that, I'd start in on new music.
MjM
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Re: No Subject Given
I'd be delighted to spend £4 on a disc or £6 on a film - and I'd buy far more of them. At that level it's not worth the hassle & risk of duplication & P2P.
However, while many artists now offer direct sales at a much lower price, I can only see the record companies looking harder and harder for impossible technical means of keeping prices artificially high in a market where they have already lost control.
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Albums as an artistic whole
I have to say though, I have Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway album and there's not a clunker on it. Still, it's not like the collection of songs had to go on the same album...the live "Beautiful Disaster" in particular seems like they were trying to fill the album. Of course that is the exception, it's like quintiple platinum at this point.
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Re: Albums as an artistic whole
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Re: Albums as an artistic whole
I would have bought more than that. I wouldn't have paid to have the scene where the chaotician was lying bare-chested on a table after his leg was broken. Frikkin' FEJF DOGLMUBL.
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Re: Albums as an artistic whole
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Re: Albums as an artistic whole
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Albums vs. Singles
Rock and roll was built on the singles market. And iTunes is starting to bring it back around to that model.
But there are still plenty of musicians who put a lot of effort into crafting an album that stands up as a solid work. Most of these albums get ignored by MTV and commercial radio, but they're out there if you know where to look!
By the way, the whole idea of an "album" started out as a collection of 78s. If you look at the first albums, they look a lot like photo albums with several record sleeves bound together in a book!
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Re: Albums vs. Singles
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Albums vs. Singles in a collection...
I personally would miss the albums that are cohesive works. I still like to produce my work that way (although I do have singles on the 'net for fun). The Wall, Tommy, Night At The Opera, AcoustiZilla, and countless soundtracks...
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The problem is multipart...
2. I wish that the LP (and its CD cousins) didn't go away. Some people, like the earlier days of Prince (The Artist, or whatever the hell he calls himself) used the LP to tell a story, every song blended into the next, there were these weird interludes between songs, it was an experience, not a bunch of singles put together. I don't know if most mainstream talent even has that kind of skill anymore.
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Virtual music as albums
In many instances this method is valuable in that it puts together a group of songs that are similar and that people might like. Economically, it also makes sense - but strictly in an 'a la carte' environment' - because the songs are 'offered' as part of a collection but can be bought (or downloaded) seperate. Just like each album is part of a collection of musician releases (which is part of a collection of genres)
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Lord, I hope not
I rarely ever buy a cd without knowing that there are a minimum of three good songs on it. The exceptions are cd's by artists I've seen live, and I know that I am going to like what I hear.
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Outdated Concept
The choice is basically the same when the cassette tape recorders first came out, you recorded from your vinyl LPs to play in your car, but never the whole LP, just the songs that you like the most. The thing about this was that you still had to buy all the songs in the marketed package. But not any more, the internet is the great world wide distribution system that nullifies that requirement.
So now you have the RIAA trying to make people buy all the songs in the marketed package, or buy songs over that they already have on different media. They can't seem to understand that, that method of recording, packaging and marketing is just like the vinyl LP, goooonnnne! People now have choices to buy single songs and make their own LPs as it were, so they are no longer going to pay for a bunch of crap, just to get to the good stuff.
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
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Pretty much cant help but agree here
I've felt for quite a while now that the "concept" album, and indeed, any sort of cohesive album, has been dying or dead for a while. It makes sense from a marketing perspective. Why allow artists 3x the production time to produce a cohesive product when the marketing crew assumes that the average listener will only be hearing a single, off the radio, internet, or on MTV. Of course they are focused on producing good singles. Because they found that they can cram an album down most people's throat just as easily with 1 good single as with a whole album. Sometimes easier. Have you ever noticed that on your favorite albums, the ones you still listen to in their entirety, that you first listened to the hits, and the rest of the songs grew on you later? The hits grabbed you right away, but eventually you came to appreciate the album as a whole because the rest of the songs were still well done and fit into the album well. Other albums, there's a few hits, and you never want to hear the other songs again. Those albums were made with the "you can't make everything a hit" mentality. They figure, I'm not good enough to make every song a hit, so I won't try to, I'll cram all my talent into a couple and then crank out a bunch of "filler." Then I count on the couple hits to sell the album to most folks.
Back in the day, say, led zeppelin, for example, would take a general idea and apply it to a whole album. They made a bluesy slow album, they made a blazing hot bordering on metal album. This approach is less likely to produce mega hits, opposed to trying to cram all your hit potential in a few songs, but it makes for a better album overall. The super extension of this theory is the concept album, where the idea isn't even a general one, the entire album is devoted to one central idea. Jethro Tull famously responded to people incorrectly labelling their album a concept album by making a REAL concept album. It was one 45 minute song.
This is exactly why I have spent the last six months on my latest project, coincidentally, a concept album. I wanted to try to bring that art form back, feeling that it has been lost and underappreciated. And, of course, also to see if I could set such an abmitious goal and actually complete it. I can say as of last tuesday that I have finished writing the songs and starting recording. And I have to say, I was still surprised to see that property of a concept album come out. Some songs are defintite hits. other songs I can already tell would not do too well on the radio. But I still like how they work in the album. It's quite interesting. I tested it on my friend. I played him one I thought would be a good radio hit, and he loved it immediately. a week later, a song that would not do well on it's own. This one, he did not like. but upon hearing it later in series with some of the other songs, he suddenly found that it had grown on him tremendously. That, I've found, from first hand experience of song writing, is the difference between the two albums. with the cohesive albums, the "filler" is filler that still works well in the context of the other songs around it. filler for the sake of filler often stands out as just filler. The difference in what I did, I think, was simply that I was focused on the album as a whole, from the very beginning. I was not trying to write "hits" or "filler", I was trying to write songs that fit a general message I wanted the album to deliver. At no time did I sit down and say "I am trying to write a hit" or "I am just trying to write filler". In each and every song there were parts that got me truly excited over something I did which I felt was a stroke of genius. Some of those were small some were large. but if, at any time, I felt that the genius wasn't coming, I didn't throw the song in as "filler", I threw it in the trash. I think most artists these days don't do it that way anymore, either by their own focus on writing a few hits, or by pressure from the record label to produce an album that will sell, on a set time or budget.
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nope
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No Subject Given
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Cover Art No more!
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its all ridiculous
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Re: Cover Art No more!
I have two words for you: Ed Unitsky.
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Re: Re: Cover Art No more!
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No Subject Given
the smarter ones that really care about the music download it illegaly, and download the full albums. as i do. sure pirating music is wrong, but im not gonna stop. because if i did stop, i would loose all touch with music. all of it. no way in hell im going to buy overpriced music from the bull shit companies just trying to get in touch with the next big money maker. no way in hell.
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
Dont you just hate putting an album on for friends to listen to(i mean an ALBUM not a collection of 3 alright(ish) songs and some crap filler to make the CD last 45mins) only for them to start skipping tracks after hearing only seconds of each one because they want to get to the hits!?
I know you could say that maybe i'm misguided and infact the tracks they are skipping ARE crap filler but you'l have to trust me that this happens no matter what i play and i'm not some top 40 listening teeny bopper !! If you ask me (we are talking REAL music here not crap top 40 style stuff) albums are how the artist intended you to listen to their songs. They intentionally packaged the songs in that order to create an atempt at atmosphere. OK not all manage to pull this off but to ignore their wishes and listen to the album in any other order is an insult to the artists work. If you dont like their work, dont listen to it but please dont start skipping parts just to get to the "best" bits!!
Sorry if that seems a bit off topic but what i'm getting at is that an album as a whole can mean a lot more then just a collection of songs and shouldnt be allowed to be forgotten !
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Re: No Subject Given
And Paul, even Seventh Son had some rubbish. I, for one, can't really handle "CAN I PLAY WITH MADNESS!?!?" over and over and over, it gets on my nerves. Damn cheesy. The rest of the album is amazing though.
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No Subject Given
by producing run of the mill garbage they are encurraging us to only get a couple of songs, or not buy the album at all. so there profits are going down so they put the prices up and say "downloads are destroying the artists!!" i wouldnt be surprised if the industries profit margins have hardly changed and its the money the artists are getting that is going down
the fact is there is something magical about an album (weather its on cd, vinyl or even tape casset) you open it up and sick it ur in player and you are involved in this ride of emotion and passion, trapped in the music.
downloaded music just dosnt have the same effect.
albums are artworks, they need to be mixed and ordered properly to keep you intrested and on the edge of ur seat enjoying everything you hear
or at least thats how it should be.
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Album quality has droped
crap,why arn't there albums that are either, A. a story or concept album, eg: Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
and why are people putting allthe crap on an album in the first place, if you cant fill it with good stuff don't
just cram it with the leftovers.
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It's about the consumer not the artist
Now with that said, if I like an album or concept album, I'll purchase it. If I'm in the mood to only purchase the 'hits' from the latest CD, I'll do that too. It is partly the pricing and partly the music. I would rather spend my money on what I think is of value than waste my money on music which I know I won't listen to again.
A musician or artist may want to produce a CD with 10-15 songs on it, but if I as the consumer only like or want 2, 4, or 5 of the titles, that’s all I want! If you as the artist are making music for the money, then you need to find some other way of making a living. If you are passionate about the music then do it because you need to fulfill something in yourself. Don't think that everyone should or does share you opinion of your passion.
There is a pricing point where both artist and consumer can be happy. I think there are too many others that have their hand out between the two that make the prices where they are. I also think that with podcasts and other electronic means of distribution this makes the playing field much more even for the new artist.
As for myself, I don’t like piracy, but I will download new music for new or established artists so I can listen to it and decide if I like it. If I do like it, I will go to one of the downloadable services and purchase the song. If I don’t like it, I will delete it from my hard drive. Make things reasonable and people will do the right thing, but butt-holes like the RIAA that go around and sue everyone (even those people who can’t download songs because they don’t own a PC) and you make consumers turn against you.
My two cents
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People buy what you produce and whinge about the r
OTOH, on ITMS, I download *mostly* individual tracks (and browse in order sorted by duration, descending) or the occasional piece of music - no sense in getting just one movement of Bach's Cantata 82, when the full thing runs to 5 tracks and occupies half a CD in an album, is there?
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One track mind
Then came Rock albums, then came CDs, following the historical music company penchant of geting more bucks from the music lover.
Now that even the most rabid fans of U2 and others can, and will, pick individual tracks to buy, why would we assume that other tracks won't be purchased as well?
If they are reasonably priced, they will be. I wouldn't even be surprised to see less songs recorded in total as an album, rather than more. Maybe we'll find that releasing an "album's" tracks over a period of weeks will actually generate more money, for both the artist and the label. Maybe not. But choice works best, so let's have more choices.
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