The Death of the Album

I think, the idea of a collection of songs as expansive as an album is quickly becoming an archaic idea. And why not! It's time to take music back to the Single/E.P.? I know I've talked about this before, but I think since I last spoke on this the topic has advanced so quickly that I'd like to explore it again.

I feel that it is time that musicians started creating one song at a time or at the most a very small collection of songs at a time. This will provides the artist more flexibility to record in various manners with a natural progression of sound. Most people don't listen to albums anymore; they fill their iPod with a lots of songs from different artists. Since each piece is more than likely listened to separately it is better to treat each song as a separate thought. If a song has to be with another song you can merge the two together, and not separate them into separate tracks. At the end of the year bands and solo artists could reward fans with a boutique physical releases, and the lurkers/outsiders can simply enjoy the pieces they've already purchased or buy more.

For those who want/need the strong visuals that coincide with an album release there could still be visual tie ins to the recorded product. There could be micro-sites/blogs for each song. Since the focus is on the one song, more attention would be paid to creating the best works possible in the smallest amount of time. Since people's attention spans are shorter now artists can work at utilize every second possible. Artists could still create epic expansive albums if they want, but they would be more akin to a box sets. The album would be a collection of singles digital and/or 45's (two songs) and/or other interesting variants (3 or more songs).

I think this has a strong possibility of working well. By musicians accommodating the consumer I think they're will be some interesting harmonious effects. As the switch to the album format in the 70's created some beautiful and in the same way some less exciting music, this will without doubt create similar results.