[Barry_Clarke]

Albums I believe will become a thing of the past in the next 10 years all we have to look at is Bruno Mars reducing his album to $1.99 and Lady Gaga reduced hers to $0.99. They are now just used as a statistic, but are no longer lucrative, only a select few sell millions of albums. They don't seem to have the same stature anymore, labels now see that the main money is made from getting their artists performing, with concerts, advertising deals, publishing deals etc. Singles are massively important however to me album's no longer have the same significance in the industry as they had 10-15 years ago.

Thoughts ?

[AdzPower]

It's really only a problem in the Western world, in the East, particularly in Asian countries most artists can sell a butt load of albums.

[Finny Skeleta]

I keep hearing people say that the death of the album is a good thing because "I'm fed up of buying whole albums and there are only two or three good songs on them. By buying just the individual tracks we are only paying for the good songs, not the rubbish ones."

To which I would reply; maybe you should try listening to better artists. I don't seem to have any trouble finding albums that are quality from start to finish; I own a few thousand of them. Look harder.

[rfonzo]

I always consider albums important because they are the body of work in which an artist has produced. As a whole, they present the emotions, thoughts and experiences that an artist may have. Therefore, they are very important.

[crazymonk]

Finny Skeleta I agree, people's interest in music and taste has declined not music. The album won't die for a while yet.

[HandsClean]

Music is factory made now, it's basically the same recycled thing over and over again. Most of the top 40 is overrated tosh sung by talentless singers, overrated DJ's who continuously release songs that sound the same and X Factor rejects who are given all possible advantages on prime time TV thanks to the disappearance of TOTP and still fail to meet label expectations. Audiences of Radio and causal listeners are spoon fed this crap.

Big albums only tend to be something or someone 'different' than/from the casual trend.

[Electra]

Originally Posted by Finny Skeleta

I keep hearing people say that the death of the album is a good thing because "I'm fed up of buying whole albums and there are only two or three good songs on them. By buying just the individual tracks we are only paying for the good songs, not the rubbish ones."

To which I would reply; maybe you should try listening to better artists. I don't seem to have any trouble finding albums that are quality from start to finish; I own a few thousand of them. Look harder.

What can I say?.........*applauds*

[Newtonsaid]

Um Adele does

[Barry_Clarke]

Originally Posted by Newtonsaid

Um Adele does

She is one person I'm talking about the industry as a whole.

[my name is joe]

Originally Posted by Finny Skeleta

I keep hearing people say that the death of the album is a good thing because "I'm fed up of buying whole albums and there are only two or three good songs on them. By buying just the individual tracks we are only paying for the good songs, not the rubbish ones."

To which I would reply; maybe you should try listening to better artists. I don't seem to have any trouble finding albums that are quality from start to finish; I own a few thousand of them. Look harder.

spot on. Makes you wonder why anyone would like those artists in the first place.

The other part of the problem is people make snap judgements on songs these days, instead of listening to an album 20 or more times and realising the songs you liked least to start with are you're favourite ones on it, it's one listen to a 30 seconds preview and it's rejected.

[gertrude]

Originally Posted by Finny Skeleta

I keep hearing people say that the death of the album is a good thing because "I'm fed up of buying whole albums and there are only two or three good songs on them. By buying just the individual tracks we are only paying for the good songs, not the rubbish ones."

To which I would reply; maybe you should try listening to better artists. I don't seem to have any trouble finding albums that are quality from start to finish; I own a few thousand of them. Look harder.

This

[Revolution 909]

I love albums, I'd be really sad if artists stopped releasing albums and instead released single after single. In fact, I'm rather put off by artists who don't release albums, even if I really like their singles.

I feel that albums have themes, both lyrically and productionally. This lends to an albums overall mood i.e. happy, sad, celebratory, introspective, love & heartbreak etc. I usually have an album that I'll go to depending what mood I'm in. I don't think the same can be said for single, stand-alone songs.

I agree with what previous posters have said. If you can't find good albums, look harder because they're there (from both the past and the present).

And if you're looking for quality albums from people who feature a lot in the singles charts, 9 times out of 10 you're looking in the wrong place. That's just the way it is.

[barbeler]

Does anyone really care about Album's in today's industry ??

Probably not, but they do care about errant apostrophes.

[Harper_Milne]

Well I care so I guess that answers no to your question.

[The Rover]

Oh look, another thread which doesn't look beyond the top forty.

Albums are massively important, have been for years and will continue to be so. Nearly all of my favourite rock/metal bands don't release singles, just albums (Led Zeppelin is a very famous example). As people have said, albums convey a whole load of emotions/themes and represent an artist's whole body of work. I ****ing love albums. I would much rather listen to a fifty-minute ten track album than a five-minute single on a continuous loop.

[Eric_Blob]

Obviously some people still do care, but the focus is definitely shifting back towards individual songs (or EPs) rather than full-length albums.

People complain that's it's a sign of the music industry dieing and blah blah blah, but this is the way it was many decades ago.

[ashtray88]

Originally Posted by Finny Skeleta

To which I would reply; maybe you should try listening to better artists. I don't seem to have any trouble finding albums that are quality from start to finish; I own a few thousand of them. Look harder.

Out of interest do you buy your albums or download them from free sources?

[The Rover]

Originally Posted by Eric_Blob

Obviously some people still do care, but the focus is definitely shifting back towards individual songs (or EPs) rather than full-length albums.

People complain that's it's a sign of the music industry dieing and blah blah blah, but this is the way it was many decades ago.

Commercially maybe. In the wider music world, definitely not. The OP's statement is a load of tosh.

[Eric_Blob]

Originally Posted by The Rover

Commercially maybe. In the wider music world, definitely not. The OP's statement is a load of tosh.

Yeah, I'm talking about mainstream music obviously (as is the OP most likely).

Someone who works for the IFPI said to me that the music industry is in the process of transitioning back to a singles-driven market, like it was back in the 1960's. And he said he thinks EPs will get more popular.

Albums will never die out completely. There'll always be people continuing to make full-length albums. The success of Adele's album the past couple of years might give the album market some more legs (it's shown the major record labels that it's still possible to have a really massive album, if they do the marketing correctly).

[nooneoo]

Originally Posted by crazymonk

Finny Skeleta I agree, people's interest in music and taste has declined not music. The album won't die for a while yet.

You can't say people's taste has declined, unless you are comparing other people's taste to your own's and think yours is superior to the others . We all have different taste, personally I'm not a fan of the dance songs, but obviously a lot of other people do, that's why those songs are mostly dominating the charts nowadays. It's just a subjective thing really.

[Slojo]

Originally Posted by Barry_Clarke

Albums I believe will become a thing of the past in the next 10 years all we have to look at is Bruno Mars reducing his album to $1.99 and Lady Gaga reduced hers to $0.99. They are now just used as a statistic, but are no longer lucrative, only a select few sell millions of albums. They don't seem to have the same stature anymore, labels now see that the main money is made from getting their artists performing, with concerts, advertising deals, publishing deals etc. Singles are massively important however to me album's no longer have the same significance in the industry as they had 10-15 years ago.

Thoughts ?

Gaga did nothing --- that was 2 years ago, a one day promotion by Amazon trying to buy market share and only in the USA so hardly a a good example to reflect the way the industry views the future of Albums.

That aside though what will matter is the quality of the albums. If they are just a few good songs mixed with a lot of filler then people will cherry pick as they do now.

If they are packed with good songs which blend well and/or tell a story making a coherent album then they will still sell because the whole is greater than the parts

So I would like to think the pressure will be to produce better quality albums rather than scrap them altogether

[Amanda_Raymond]

For the most part I find the Album charts a lot more interesting then the single's charts

[Finny Skeleta]

Originally Posted by ashtray88

Out of interest do you buy your albums or download them from free sources?

All my albums are bought and paid for and sitting on shelves.

[unclekevo]

Another thread which totally generalizes, the likes of Sade still sell bucketloads of albums even though they haven't had singles success in ages

[Croctacus]

Originally Posted by Amanda_Raymond

For the most part I find the Album charts a lot more interesting then the single's charts

I don't think the singles chart are relevant. I never ever buy singles, only albums and I know plenty of people that do the same.