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How long does the music album format have left?
Posted by lisleman • 5/11/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: beatles, downloads. itunes, music
I just added to a thread about Abbey Road and started thinking (it afternoon already - about time) that downloading individual songs is how I get most my music - never albums.
But Abbey Road and some other albums have a order to the songs that adds to the listening experience.
So is the Album format dead or soon to be?
User Comments
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I never get individual songs, only albums so in my opinion they are here to stay -
album format will probably stay around. Record albums are a rarity. We have a few but mostly 45s for the jukes.
as a side question, how many people do you know that can play a record?-
play a record - do you mean have a record player? If you have one it's pretty easy if you're sober. I don't have a working record player but I have one daughter who told me she listens to vinyl so I'll assume she has a player.
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my other half restores/collects jukeboxes so yes, I play records. we own about 400 - 500 45s too.
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jukeboxes - cool - what do they typically sell for?
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it depends on the machine. We have all older models. They're sell for $3000 and up depending on the machine.
We have AMIs, Rock-olas, Seeburgs, and Wurlitzers, some the more popular models like the one from Happy Days, others are older and more rare. We also have a lot of wallboxes. -
a lot more than an Ipod - but you do get more machine and nostalgia
If I ever have a few extra grand - maybe. -
keep an eye on Craig's List and any local papers. We've picked up appx. 9 machines in the past 6 months. They all reside in the garage (wooflippinhoo) waiting to be repaired or cleaned up. We've paid about from $50 - $150 per for them.
Some of the newer models are easier to get and you might find them in working condition.
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Most of my music is downloaded individually. I think eventually, we'll see less and less albums and more songs being released individually. -
I was browsing around and discovered the single 45 is now 60 years old (RCA - 1949) and they are still produced.
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I think Album format will continue to work for those that make good albums. Most of the time I buy only 1 or 2 songs from albums because the rest of the songs are garbage.-
that's my thinking too - why paid for half the songs you don't like - Of course many out there would say why pay for songs at all, but that's another topic.
The interesting thing about Abbey Road and some others (can't think of another one right now) is the songs flow into each other - the order makes a difference (that and drugs).
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Bands will continue to make albums for two reasons.
1. When a band gets studio time and is together (which is expensive) they want to use this time to be creative and record a bunch of songs, not just one or two.
2. When a band records an album they don't necessarily know which tracks will be commercial. Record more songs and have a better chance of a hit.
Of course the very best bands are capable of putting together an album in which the songs compliment one another so listening to the album is an experience in itself greater than just hearing one or two songs.
As people who like music it is worth considering supporting bands by buying their albums even if we don't like all the tunes on them because for the band the creative experience of working on an album has a huge part to play in producing the very best music. -
I think it'll end up being a collectors world - "hard copy" albums will have to offer more incentive to by in-store therefore making the actual album more collectible.-
good point - I didn't think about the collector part. Not much to collect with MP3
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Thats right - I've noticed with the last couple of albums I've picked up from the store come with posters, artwork, bonus dvds - one even came with a limited edition fan club card that looked like the album cover and offered an all access pass to unlock areas in the official website, and offered discounts on merchandice.
Unfortunately my daughter found the lyrics booklet and decided to colour it in and tear it to pieces, so its probably worth nothing now. -
well on the positive side - you have a story to blog about - does she colour well?
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Exactly! I'm willing to pay for CD quality CD that's not going to install weird software on my computer and that will let me rip it to mp3 or ogg or any other format without any limitations. I see no point in paying for a CD or DVD with copy protection or encoding on it when you can download it without those limitations at similar quality for free.
Generally speaking, I prefer albums to songs. I like concept albums.
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If you download songs and albums, then how to you get to keep the cover art and anything else in the album? Like song lyrics for example.
I always buy the CD. You don't have anything if you can't hold it. -
I do download single songs, quite a bit, but the album is not a lost art. Some are assembled to tell a story or expand on a theme. It's like the artist's personal mix tape of their own songs, at least the well-done ones are. For bands that have been around for several years, each album is a snapshot of where they were, musically, around that time. Comparing, say, U2's latest album to the ones from the mid-1980s reveals a lot of changes and highlights any similarities.-
Your right comparing U2 from the eighties to the U2 of today reveals them to have been pretentious and overrated in the eighties and they have managed to expand that to levels of pretension rarely seen outside of a wine tasting in an art critics house. -
Exactly. Wait, I like them for about four years, there, in the mid-80s. After that, the pretension took over. They're a lot like REM in that way, and about as relevant today.
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Urrrgghh I don't know which band I hate more now. Every time I hear Michael Stipe whining I want to go on a well planned killing spree in Athens Georgia, just in case it happens again.
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Come, now. That wasn't a very shiny, happy thing to say.
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