The next order of business for OB

[zeb]

but I'd be perfectly happy if everybody just followed those whispered words of wisdom, and let it be (not naked).

Besides that, I think the era of the album is ending anyway

What makes you think that, 'digm?

[bart]

If you liked liner notes, you'll love the internet!!

[LoathedVermin72]

If you liked liner notes, you'll love the internet!!

[McParadigm]

Besides that, I think the era of the album is ending anyway

What makes you think that, 'digm?

I don't know how else to read it. Streaming and digital downloads focus almost exclusively on singles. The scene today looks more like 1961 then it does anything else. Most of the famous "musicians" are just interpreters and entertainers, and bands that aren't 20 or 30 years past their peak are selling five or six times the number of singles that they are albums. The last two Fall Out Boy records have sold a combined 7 million in digital singles sales...and barely 1.2 million records (again, combined).

Maybe we will get back to a point similar to the pre-Elvis era, where an earthier, more potent sound is developed with hardly anyone noticing (and not much in the way of sales), and then future wild hearts get turned on to their Lonesome and Blue by a friend in the know. Or maybe it isn't that cyclical, and entirely different stories are set to play out.

[zeb]

All good points but I think the album as an artistic statement has a decade or two left in it.

[BurtReynolds]

yeah it seems that artists still want to make albums. Maybe there is a trend towards EPs, but even that isn't taking over.

Album releases still make a bigger splash with the public than an individual song release does. Album releases are events. Individual song releases don't seem to make much of a dent.

[Strat]

I dont think albums are going to go away. Pop culture will pop culture but i think albums will always be around.

[bodysnatcher]

Everything goes in cycles. One day there will be double-album rock operas again.

[Birds in Hell]

I dont think albums are going to go away. Pop culture will pop culture but i think albums will always be around.

I agree, I don't think the idea of presenting a selection of songs together in some way is something that will come to an end.

[LoathedVermin72]

Album releases still make a bigger splash with the public than an individual song release does. Album releases are events. Individual song releases don't seem to make much of a dent.

I'm not sure this is true.

[McParadigm]

Beg pardon, friends, but I didn't say the album was going away. I said that today's market more resembles the pre-65 era where albums were second in relevance to individual songs. And I expect that will exponentiation, as a new generation of musicians grows up who is acclimated to that world.

Especially in the under-25 crowd, full albums get very little notice compared to singles. As in the pre-Beatles/Dylan era, less and less attention is paid to full album releases.

[BurtReynolds]

Seems like the 80s were similar: Much more emphasis on the hit singles, but they are still surrounded by enough filler to make it an album.

[Kevin Davis]

Have any significant artists abandoned albums altogether for the singles format? This is a legitimate question. I just wonder if the "albums are dying" thing is something that there's tangible evidence for, or if it's just a conclusion that people have jumped to based on modern methods of music consumption.

edit: McP's post above kind of answers my question. So basically, we expect they will continue to be made, but not bought?

[McParadigm]

Seems like the 80s were similar: Much more emphasis on the hit singles, but they are still surrounded by enough filler to make it an album.

Maybe there was more emphasis on singles, but the 80's were a part of the build up of album sales that peaked in the very late 90's and was beyond anything before or since (and was a part of why everybody wanted to remaster and rerelease during that time).

LPs sold better in the 80's than anytime prior.

[Strat]

Oh c'mon. Who owns a bon jovi album?

[BurtReynolds]

truly the music industry is livin' on a prayer.

[doug rr]

truly the music industry is livin' on a prayer.

they'll go out in a blaze of glory

[i got bugs]

I'm too cheap to pay 15 a month for sirius xm

[BurtReynolds]

truly the music industry is livin' on a prayer.

they'll go out in a blaze of glory

Napster really was Bad Medicine for the music industry.

[doug rr]

truly the music industry is livin' on a prayer.

they'll go out in a blaze of glory

Napster really was Bad Medicine for the music industry.

you are correct...have a nice day, burt