The album is dead? Who knew?

Feb 20, 2007

The album is dead? Who knew? · by Sach O

Crusty old journalist file photo

You can’t read a mainstream publication nowadays without skimming through an article about how the downloading-revolution is killing the music industry. Written by a crusty old journalist who’s still angry that he had to repurchase his copy of REO Speedwagon’s debut on CD, the article inevitably mentions 3 things. 1) Labels are shitting their pants. 2) They can’t do anything about it. 3) Thieving ADD rattled kids are killing the album format with their single track downloads and music is reverting to a scary pre-Beatles singles driven market devoid of complexity or full-length statements. Oh word?

...

I promise I won’t use that pun again. But back to the program.

Last time I checked, the single track download meant jack squat in the new musical economy. Blogs are giving out free tracks like they’re prizes in cereal boxes, artists are putting an EP’s worth of material on Myspace just to get a rep and rock artists are still meticulously linking their tracks in some bid for artistic self-importance. When the RIAA isn’t arresting them, emcees and DJs are still releasing 24 track mixtapes (street albums if you will) and if the feds are to be believed, people are buying them. None of this points to the long-playing format dying out anytime soon: just because people can make playlists and delete filler (all good things) it doesn’t mean that the listening public has suddenly grown dumber and can’t process an hour’s worth of music at the same time. Besides, downloading full albums is the Holy Grail of piracy: you can find a new leaked single pretty easily but the big “thing” is to get the album leak before the next man.

As usual, the issues is that people aren’t willing to pay for WACK albums. Laffy Taffy may have gotten a ton of downloads as a single, but that’s largely due to the fact that no one in their right mind wants to listen to more than 3 minutes of that stuff in a row. I’m pretty sure no one is copping the Clipse or Roots’ albums one piece at a time, although in all fairness not many people bought their shit in any size, shape or format. Still, who the hell are these non-album listening downloaders? Post your listening habits in the talkback, I’m genuinely curious.

Comments for "The album is dead? Who knew?"

I consider myself an avid downloader, but I still enjoy opening the package of a new album, putting it in and reading the entire liner notes. If an album is good, I will buy. My whole issue is, in 2006, there were maybe 5 albums that were worth the purchase. Instead of the ATF, RIAA, and whoever else busting down all of these doors in music raids, how about putting a focus on putting out better music? People love to buy albums….there just aint shyt worth buying.

— Hussle Crowe Feb 20, 04:06 PM
So I’ve been thinking a lot of about this subject lately, the whole techVSmusic concept when it comes to commerce. This following link: http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/2007/02/im_in_itunes_st.html sparked a lot of my thought about this and is leading me to, tonight, go through my iTunes purchases and rerip them to MP3. DRM (digital rights management, something that the industry thought it had to do since it’s a billion times easier for me to make a copy of my friend’s music than it was 10 years ago, when it was still relatively easy, but not nearly as fast) is one of the big things involved here.

You’re right about nobody except for all of our 12 year old sisters wanting to spend money on Laffy Taffy, and that’s always been true, except that now the internet user with a brain can get what they want for nothing. I think it’s coming down to an enforcement battle, DJ Drama & The Mixtape community VS the RIAA who will always have their heads up their asses.

The music loving and sometimes buying community is sending a message right now that it will continue to buy shit, but only if it’s marketed down their throats (American Idol, shitty ringtones).

Also of note about DRM and music commerce is Steve Jobs’ recent essay about the current state of DRM, linked here: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

I’m tired of DRM and when I get home tonight, I’m burning all my iTunes music I want to keep onto CD-R’s and then reripping them as MP3’s. I’ll lose quality of sound, but I don’t know if my ears will notice.

— Henry Casey Feb 20, 05:23 PM
nobody born after 1990 buys albums in 2007. it’s a fact.

— noz Feb 20, 06:15 PM
Yeah but they download them and play them front to back all the same.

I’m not insinuating that people PAY for music. Who the hell would do that?

— Sach Feb 20, 06:20 PM
Musics too easy to grab you can request any joint on any hip-hop forum assuming you’ve met there 25-50 post count critiera to access that forum.

And Heads will rush out to find it, so they can garner that e-status as the supplyer

— Shay Feb 20, 06:48 PM
^100% true

sites like http://hhb.blogspot.com/ are the best way to get music yet, since you get the whole album in a rar, & the quality check has been done usually by the blog author who listened to the album first.

This is so far superior to the original internets bootlegging – eg 1999 era Napster

It seems like the media, thankfully, hasn’t caught wind of these music blogs yet.

I just wonder are these music blogs here to stay, or do we a short time frame to enjoy them before RIAA starts bullying them to close?

Anyone have an opinion on this?

— NoMamesBuey Feb 20, 07:22 PM
youre totally right about the single track download… i bet in like 10 years artists wont even do albums any more they’ll just release singles which can only be purchased via 99 cent internet downloads… but i sitll BUY cds. i finnally found atmospheres “you cant imagine how much fun were having” yesterday and ive been lisetnin to it, front to end all day… good album, but yes i wish moreppl would buy cds

— goose Feb 20, 09:49 PM
RIAA as far as music blogs go, I don’t see them getting bullyed, I do however seeing there hots getting bullyed and it really has to be a case of them gaining enough exposure and targeting to a wide-enough market. Your p2p networks got shut down because they gave accessibilty to everyone for all sorts of media formats as well as musics.

There efficency was dropped when the RIAA started propergating virus’s through the system and thus the credibilty of the software and maintainers was compromised. Making it a much less viable means of sharing.

Thus came the creation of the music blogs – The diffrence between the blogs and the p2p networks is that, Most blogs won’t hit a huge auidence, The downloads even of those high exposure blogs are minimal limited to the hundreds, yes in some cases the thousands but still not a credibly large amount to warrant RIAA acknoweldgement.

However as the blogs get more-wide-spread and more abundant and more pressures put on them.

They’ll all go up in smoke.

— Shay Feb 20, 10:32 PM
The formal rap album isn’t dead, but it’s definitely hurting.

As others have said, fans relying on file-sharing technology and corporations marketing to the youth are obviously important, but it’s unclear whether these are causes or effects of contemporary rap albums sucking.

A surprising number of mainstream and underground artists try to create conceptually and sonically cohesive albums—Common, Little Brother, Nas, Doom, Ghost, Clipse, J Zone, Count Bass D, Kast, Kanye, De La, Roots, for example—but just from looking at that list it should be clear that trying alone does not guarantee quality or success. The fact that rappers can’t create classic albums anymore, even when they try, has little to do with technology or corporate control.

I am still invested in the album as a form; I just make my own albums. There are some duds on both Fishscale and Bulletproof Wallets, but I have created my own versions of these albums that are vastly superior to the retail versions. And though neither of The Clipse’s albums are classic, I place the best 6 songs from their 1st album alongside the best 6 from their 2nd album, and that makes a damn good album, even if it isn’t completely cohesive.

I don’t know, though—attention spans may actually be shrinking. Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that at popular clubs (the glow stick kind excluded), many DJs only play one verse from each song, presumably because people are too impatient to sit through an entire song. Maybe it’s just the clubs I’m frequenting, but this used to be pretty rare; now it’s the norm.

— eauhellzgnaw Feb 21, 12:35 AM
“I’m not insinuating that people PAY for music. Who the hell would do that?”

I do (said sheepishly).

I’ve got no problem buying GOOD albums, just like the rest of y’all, I’m sure. The hunt for stuff that’s solid throughout is part of the thrill of buying new shit for me nowadays.

— Al aka El Negro Magnifico Feb 21, 03:33 AM
I download every day, and some of it is mediocre at best. However I am also a vinyl junkie, and I buy at least three new LP’s a week, and hit the flea markets as well for the classics every chance that I get. If the industry vulture’s are hurting it’s only just as they have been ripping off the creative for the last 80 years. Change is inevitable, and natural selection picks off those who can not adapt.The fact is that musicians do not need them anymore, and they need to close up shop, and go into advertising, and distribution. We will allways be one step ahead. As far a mixtapes the more they crack down the more popular they will become, and the RIAA ain’t shit in the street.
The future of musical entertainment is interactive from audiocontent to video to packaging. Artists can profit from good old fasioned touring, and maybe some of these wack ass hip hop cat’s will have to step up and learn to create a captivating live show instead of bobbing up and down in front of some cdj staring at the floor. I suggest playing instruments, creating costumes, biting the heads off of politicians. Anything to inspire a movement.
We can also create, and cross market legal positive products. Hyphy Juice tastes like donkey
piss.
And last we can use web based advertising as a means to get paper.
PEACEKNOWLEDGEVOLUTION….
ANANZIone
— djaNaZiONE Feb 21, 04:17 AM
“People love to buy albums….there just aint shyt worth buying.”

Amen to that.

I download a LOT, but still buy the records I feel like I want to listen to 2 years from now. I don’t buy CD’s because I feel they usually don’t offer enough extra value compared to mp3’s.

I do however buy vinyl. I haven’t even heard Hip Hop Is Dead yet because the LP wasn’t available last time I visited my favourite record shop. I keep waiting and refuse to download it. Aaahh, the feeling of putting the needle on a freshly bought record, one you’ve waited for for a while.

— Perttu Feb 21, 04:17 AM
I downloaded two joints off it, and listened to them once, it did not move me to get up off my ass, and dance, in fact my neck was’nt even sore afterward.So hip hop is not really dead but Nas died after he stopped being Nasty. Yes I like dropping a needle on some new shizz but it is even better when you mix the best into a mix, and it fitts the vibe like aaahhhhh…...

— djaNaZiONE Feb 21, 04:33 AM
The album isn’t dead, it’s just another bullshit headline. I remember not so long ago people were saying rock was dead, metal was dead, etc. And metal has had a huge resurgence since then. Personally, I love buying cds, although these days I hunt down used ones (the cd format still costing the same, and dvds being sold new for 5 bucks, wtf!?). Sure, I might get a free album now and then off the internet, but the main purpose is to sample new artists or older ones that are new to you in order to tell if you want to buy it or not. Simple as that.

— gbowles Feb 22, 01:53 AM
One blog I read recently (J-Zone’s I think) suggested that physical albums were becoming more for collectors and less for actual musical commerce. I think that might be true but on an incredibly small level – even if legitimately downloaded singles have grown 10,000% in the last year they probably account for 1% of total music sales at best. I’d love to see exact stats but I’m willing to bet no matter what the numbers are that “a la carte” still represents the vast minority of what’s purchased. I haven’t walked into Best Buy, Target or Wal*Mart lately and seen them bulldozing the CD sections because the album is dead. The future is not necessarily one or the other. The media sizes may become smaller (imagine buying a smart card with the whole album on it instead of a compct disc) or cheaper, and sales of individual singles will get an increasingly larger piece of the pie, but the inevitable outcome is quite simply MORE CHOICES FOR THE CONSUMER. They will decide what they want and how much of it, and as long as there are artists like MF Doom, Nas, Dilated Peoples and Aceyalone who make brilliant albums where just one song wouldn’t be enough albums will still be sold – but there’s a chance you’ll be buying the whole album digitally and printing your OWN CD if you really want a physical copy. As much as we like to think we live in the information age though there are still a vast majority of people who don’t own iPods, who aren’t online, and who don’t even own a computer. Hard formats will always have a place in our society, and they have ever since the very first phonograph.

— DJ Flash Feb 22, 04:16 AM
I listen to everything and i can find redeeming value in alot of artist/songs some of yall would shit on (because you probably take your self to seriously, but i digress). with that being said, I’m stationed in Italy in the AF so finding music is difficult here. When i first got here I needed hip-hop bad and although i hate ludacris, his was like the only album out that I hadn’t heard that was available so i bought it. still didn’t like his album but my cd collection is bigger so there is some upside. Conversely, now that I have broadband once again, i enjoy scowering the blogs,p2ps, and forums looking for some new shit to bump on the sub. overall i feel the comments that cd’s are almost like collectors items because sometimes i just get that itch to buy something blindly sometimes something i would never think of buying just cause, to me that surprise/satisfaction (for me for instance, it was Trick Daddy’s last album) is worth every penny. At the same time I’m slow to listen to shit i don’t normally listen to like john mayer, thicke, hyphy shit or something in any genre i haven’t heard before. so downloading is great to me because it’s just a big sampler plate to find something you may like. I guess to sum up my rambling, sometimes i buy albums i don’t even want so i guess those artist make money, sometimes i download albums i would buy so those artist don’t, for me it just depends on my mood, my schedule that kind of thing. To me that’s where record labels and artist should step up and use the “live show” to boost there bottomelines. SOme of yall can hate on this next comment, but your favorite rapper is probably wack live on stage. And once again conversly some of the artist you hate the most are very entertaining in person. All of that may be off subject, but I just feel like there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Can’t sell cd’s, sell “your self”, just my opinion. if an artist/label doen’st want to do that, then they should just get out of the music “business”.

— Mdubb Feb 22, 03:20 PM