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I think that was true for the iTunes years before Spotify and other streaming services came along. Before, you had to pay for each song so you picked just a few
by pradn 9y ago
I think that was true for the iTunes years before Spotify and other streaming services came along. Before, you had to pay for each song so you picked just a few you liked. Now, it's just as easy to play the whole album as to play one song. (In facts, it's easier to queue up an album than to play one song at a time since you have to choose what to play fewer times per time interval.)
Anecdotally, we've seen whole-album concepts become big hits in recent years: Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, Kanye West's Life of Pablo, Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book, etc.
On top of that, almost all hip-hop songs these days have intro tags (which producers worked on the song.) Not instrumental of course, but non-song content none-the-less.
- dhimes 9y agoThat's great to hear (heh). I haven't used those services because I buy albums and listen to college radio. But when Pandora first came out I was pretty blown away.
- ghaff 9y agoOn still the other hand though, an awful lot of people these days just cue up some music style or artist as opposed to choosing what specifically to play. I know that's what I tend to do. I think it's hard to argue against the idea that the album concept has mostly declined in relevance since its heyday.
- Kadin 9y agoI'm sure lots of people do that, but it's actually easier with the streaming services to listen to an entire album than it was a few years ago when iTunes 99c/song was the dominant model. Pay-per-song encouraged playlists and "greatest hits" type mix CDs, but didn't encourage anyone to purchase B-sides or interstitial tracks. At least with services like Spotify et al, you aren't paying per track, so you have the option of listening to a whole album as a single body of work. Of course, not everyone wants to do that, which is cool.
- stefanpie 9y agoAlso wanted to mention logics new album, Everybody, and his previous album, The Incredible True Story, are great example of the whole-album concept but specifically interweaving storytelling into the album idea which I believe made the albums much more engaging and enjoyable to listen to.
- Moru 9y agoBefore you could buy music one song at a time we complained that the music labels would release a new album with three new songs and the rest was just the same old songs from their other albums. And then comes the "Greatest hits" collections with even more copies of the same stuff.