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Are downloads killing the Album?


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Old 16-10-2009, 00:26
Hotelier
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 00:36
pobop
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 00:42
Tigerpaws
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 08:49
Pitman
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 08:56
Gneiss
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The great albums that people rave over are the albums that don't have filler.
I think most still do to a certain extent or maybe I just buy crap albums

I find there are almost always some tracks I could happily skip if I could be bothered....
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Old 16-10-2009, 08:57
stud u like
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 09:16
Robert Romarin
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 14:05
Glawster2002
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 16:23
brunolover
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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.
Wow! either you have amazingly high standards or like "singles" pop orientated artists who pay little attention to making a decent albums. Find it amazing out of all the hundreds and thousands of amazing albums out there you can only find under 10 which you like more than half the tracks!
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Old 16-10-2009, 16:35
musicdude
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 17:23
LynxSoldier
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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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Old 16-10-2009, 23:42
Screaming Tree
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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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Old 17-10-2009, 16:38
Slick Nick
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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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Old 17-10-2009, 17:02
Cjw
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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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Old 17-10-2009, 19:05
zx50
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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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