We’ve got to kill the album.<\/p>\n
Actually, it’s already dead.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that the artists and labels don’t know it.<\/p>\n
Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist.\u00c2\u00a0 Just think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 When cavemen started banging on rocks, was there somebody chewing a primitive cigar saying you’ve got to have TWELVE rhythms, broken down six to a side?<\/p>\n
Actually, live performance eventually pervaded, and with concerts longer pieces were required.\u00c2\u00a0 You ultimately had the classical composers, delivering long suites for paying customers.<\/p>\n
But eventually it became about the song,\u00c2\u00a0 And you had pluggers running around trying to get stars to sing them, to ultimately drive people to buy the sheet music.<\/p>\n
Then we hit the era of the single.\u00c2\u00a0 Which ruled until technology delivered a carrier that could hold more music.\u00c2\u00a0 Which the Beatles ultimately employed to birth "Sgt. Pepper", the first CONCEPT album.\u00c2\u00a0 You had something to say, you could stretch it out to a complete side.\u00c2\u00a0 Which people would listen to while lying on the couch, while reading the paper, while making out.\u00c2\u00a0 And never forget, THERE WAS NO SINGLE ON SGT. PEPPER!<\/p>\n
The album was so successful that an entire radio format was created to service it, AOR.\u00c2\u00a0 It was about the deep tracks, the deejay was a guide, turning you on to albums that you wanted to buy and play at home.<\/p>\n
But then Top Forty came back, the single ruled in an era of longer discs (the CD!)\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, people only wanted the track, because the rest of what was on the album sucked, and there was TOO MUCH OF IT!\u00c2\u00a0 And once they had a way of ONLY getting the track they wanted, they took it.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, labels had discontinued CD singles, forcing consumers to purchase the entire album.\u00c2\u00a0 But now the public could steal the one and only track it wanted, and eventually buy it, via iTunes and its brethren.<\/p>\n
But the real change was the carrier, the playback system.<\/p>\n
Used to be you were limited to how much music you could play at once.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you had a changer, but that hurt the records.\u00c2\u00a0 The goal was to have a turntable, which only played for twenty minutes before you had to get up and change sides.\u00c2\u00a0 As for taking your music with you, you could carry a modicum of cassettes and CDs, but not your entire library.<\/p>\n
But now you can.\u00c2\u00a0 On the iPod.<\/p>\n
And now people no longer listen to albums.<\/p>\n
And the only people who don’t know this is the purveyors.<\/p>\n
Society is overwhelming.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got 300 TV channels, if not MORE!\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got a bunch of new movies EVERY weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got video games.\u00c2\u00a0 We haven’t got time to sit down and listen to an hour of crap over and over again in order to get hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 We want something ear-pleasing, NOW!\u00c2\u00a0 We ONLY want GOOD STUFF!<\/p>\n
Shit, that blows your mind.<\/p>\n
You’re creating hour long masterpieces that the public must eat like a day locked inside a McDonald’s, but the public only wants some McNuggets and then a taco from Taco Bell, an ice cream from Cold Stone, a donut…\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S what iPods are like.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re MIX AND MATCH!<\/p>\n
The goal is to get into the iTunes library.\u00c2\u00a0 And you don’t do this by releasing ten cuts, but by making ONE GREAT ONE!<\/p>\n
Oh, it doesn’t have to be catchy, just GOOD!<\/p>\n
This is the labels’ worst nightmare.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This is not their paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 They pay a big chunk of money to an artist to get an album which they can sell for ten bucks to make their bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not in the SINGLES BUSINESS!<\/p>\n
And every act thinks it’s the Beatles, that it’s important, that it’s got a STATEMENT to make.<\/p>\n
But the audience doesn’t give a shit about ALL of this.\u00c2\u00a0 The public just wants quality.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, something it LIKES!<\/p>\n
Yes, the iPod has killed the album.\u00c2\u00a0 Technology has changed the format once again.<\/p>\n
And, since an iPod can contain MORE MUSIC THAN ALMOST EVERYBODY EVER OWNED, there isn’t time for crap.\u00c2\u00a0 You now have access to too much good stuff, WHY listen to the crap?<\/p>\n
The album is OVER!<\/p>\n
Start hyping one cut.\u00c2\u00a0 And if that catches fire, deliver ANOTHER!<\/p>\n
Hell, maybe the magic number is four.\u00c2\u00a0 BECAUSE THAT’S THE QUANTITY MYSPACE ALLOWS YOU TO STREAM!!!<\/p>\n
If you like one, you can check out a couple more.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe listen to four to find out if that one you like isn’t an anomaly, and the rest are similar enough to your tastes.<\/p>\n
This is economic death for the label.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless it controls EVERY song.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, after all, people want A LOT!<\/p>\n
But the labels keep consolidating, keep releasing fewer records, keep ceding the marketplace to the independent.\u00c2\u00a0 IMPALA worried about major mergers?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s like Olivetti worrying about Smith Corona.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, THAT’S JUST THE POINT!\u00c2\u00a0 These purveyors are HISTORY!<\/p>\n
The money is in the aggregation.\u00c2\u00a0 On a grand scale!<\/p>\n
As for the act, the goal is a GREATEST HITS ALBUM!<\/p>\n
Yup, release fewer tracks on a more regular basis.\u00c2\u00a0 THEN maybe sell all your best at one cheap price…as a matter of CONVENIENCE!<\/p>\n
I don’t want to hear about economics, I don’t want to hear about art, the album is history, FINITO!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not how people listen anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 And the public is always right.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve heard that axiom, HAVEN’T YOU?<\/p>\n
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