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Are downloads killing the Album? |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: 51°30'4.56"N 0° 8'31.21"W
Posts: 12,160
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Are downloads killing the Album?
The singles market has seen large rises recently, whilst album sales have dropped. It seems people are tending to downloading individual tracks, rather than buy a whole album.
I must admit, I have quite a few albums purchased since the late sixties, that I only really liked because of a few tracks, and if downloading had been available then, Id have done it. Dowloads are now by far the majority of singles sales, and coupled with the cost( <£1 compared to cd singles 2 or 3 quid.) has seen sales shoot up and album sales have suffered. Is this the beginning of the end for the album?, or can it be revived?. |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
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Albums will always be the contract stated thing to signed artists. I don't think it matters per se as not all artists release all their songs individually on intunes.
Digital music is not crippling the ent buiz but it is confusing everyone. |
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Anywhere but here
Posts: 10,736
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Maybe it will make artists and record labels realize they can't continue to be lazy putting out albums with half the album of good songs and the rest mediocre filler.
The great albums that people rave over are the albums that don't have filler. |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: London
Posts: 16,574
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yeah, if you are making top quality stuff you have nothing to worry about as the fans will want it all
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Cambridgeshire
Posts: 14,046
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Quote:
The great albums that people rave over are the albums that don't have filler.
![]() I find there are almost always some tracks I could happily skip if I could be bothered.... |
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
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I prefer to cherry pick the songs I like. For years I bought physical albums that only had a couple of songs I liked.
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#7 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 11,836
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I hope so. I've never really liked the album format.
I think I've heard probably fewer than 10 albums from which I like more than half the songs (compilations excepted). More than three quarters of the album tracks in my collection never get played again after I've listened to them a couple of times. |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
Posts: 10,410
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I think it depends on the music you like.
I like rock music, which I think has always been more album orientated, so I think there will always be a market for albums. |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 2,416
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Quote:
I hope so. I've never really liked the album format.
I think I've heard probably fewer than 10 albums from which I like more than half the songs (compilations excepted). More than three quarters of the album tracks in my collection never get played again after I've listened to them a couple of times.
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#10 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 8,860
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I only buy albums if i like at least all the songs on. I don't download off itunes. I like to own the actual thing.
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 1,534
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In my view an album is a body of art. Even "filler" songs can have a purpose. I think download an album song shouldn't really be allowed, it should be all or nothing. You'll find most albums are easy to grow into as long as it is not really bad quality.
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 32
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I think big music fans will probably always continue to listen to albums over individual tracks. Downloading just means that people don't have to fork out for a whole album if they're only interested in a few songs. Personally, I think albums will always continue as long as there are still major fans of the artists about.
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#13 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 927
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Only casual music fans would stop after buying a single rather than exploring an album and finding out about the said band and their influences.
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Buckinghamshire
Posts: 2,516
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Depends on the artist for me really.
Things like spotify are incredibly helpful for things like this. |
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: County Durham
Posts: 78,632
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I only buy singles if there's only the odd one or two tracks I like from said artist, but, will buy the album if there's even just 4-5 tracks I like from them. Buying multiple singles from them can sometimes be more expensive than buying the album the singles came from.
Edit: This said, I'd ALWAYS buy the physical CD than downloads. I wonder whether the music industry would prefer people to buy downloads, rather, than the actual CD because of the cost of placing the data on goodness knows how many CDs taken away. |
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