Lots of people blame digital downloading for putting the album format on the endangered species list.
If there are only a couple really good songs on the album, the theory goes, why would you pay for the whole album? The record labels are understandably worried by this turn of events, and Apple seems to feel their pain. The company has re-jiggered iTunes' pricing structure to give discounts on album purchases for singles already purchased from that album.
I think that's great. No, really, I do. Discounts are always good, right?
It's just that I find the whole idea of "protecting the album format" to prop up record company profits patently ridiculous. If an album is full of good songs, people will buy it. If it has only a couple of good songs, why should they be forced to buy the dreck just to get the songs they want?
33s took over from 45s back in the '60s when pop music changed and people wanted more than just a song - and a "B" side - from their favorite artists. (LPs always ruled in classical and jazz because they naturally lent themselves to longer forms.)
I still like to listen to whole albums at a time - often on my aging but still sonically wonderful audiophile Rotel RCD-855 single-disc CD player I know, downloads make its musical quality moot. And yes, some songs aren't as strong as others. Still, I like hearing them together. So even when I listen to my digital files, I often listen to them album by album.
But I have a good friend who hasn't done that for years. Back before MP3s, he loaded up his CD-changer with a variety of genres and hit shuffle. Now he's one of the legions who put all their music onto iTunes and shuffle their way through various playlists. I may be wrong, but he seems to have lost all interest in albums, instead downloading only the songs he's interested in.
I guess if discounts are good, choice is better, and it's a wonderful thing that we can choose to buy music the way we like to listen to it.
Now, if they can just get over their addiction to that nasty DRM.
I, for one, use my CD changer and my playlists mostly to play DJ--to try and set up interesting mixes, to see how big a jump I can make from artist to artist or genre to genre and still have the "set" work. Other playlists are grouped by style or theme, like the "Tupelo Family" playlist that has Uncle Tupelo and its descendants (Wilco, Son Volt, Golden Smog, etc.) It's not quite as random as it seems. And while I still have some interest in albums, I'd rather go buy the CD than download an entire album. But it's also true that about the only albums I listen to straight through any more are live albums.
ReplyDeleteBut here's the question you didn't address: what do you get out of listening to a whole album? If it's not a concept or live album or have some other reason the sequence is important, why listen to all of it when you acknowledge "some songs aren't as strong as others"?
I always listen to albums. Especially since the genres I listen to have a flow to them and its best if that flow is harnessed on an album.
ReplyDeleteI think the singles fad is because of the new generation's (i'm part of it) "want it all now" ideology - they don't care about the long term listening pleasure, they just want the best stuff immediately. Eventually they all get tired of their music, you can't really listen to hit after hit for more than an hour at a time.