The Police's Synchronicity. U2's Achtung Baby. Duran Duran's Rio. Nirvana's Nevermind. Hanson's Middle of Nowhere. Behold, in no particular order, my top-five album list (yes, I am perfectly serious about Hanson: pure pop perfection). This list has changed somewhat throughout the years, as the musical landscape and my personal tastes evolved. Now, all of these names are fairly dusty -- the newest one (Hanson) is already 10 years old, if you can believe it -- but it looks as though new contenders for the list may be harder to find in the future. An article in today's New York Times business section details the music-industry trend away from the full album, which "only true fans" are now perceived to buy. Hearkening back to the days of 45s, but with a decidedly digital spin, artists and record label managers have acknowledged the increasing significance of the single. In 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan, digital singles outsold tangible compact discs for the first time; so far in 2007, the digital-song business has spiked 54% to nearly 190 million tunes sold. While digital album sales are also on the rise, single sales are trumping full-album sales by a margin of 19 to 1. And overall album sales are down 16%. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is largely credited with this changing tide, of course, along with hundreds of blogs and MySpace pages offering downloadable singles. (MySpace is a division of News. Corp (NYSE: NWS)).
As a result, the piece says, "record labels are coming to grips with the loss of the album as their main product and chief moneymaker." Contracts are changing, with artists inked to produce a song or two, rather than a full record, and marketing is adopting as well.
So bid adieu to those "best" album lists, which Sgt. Pepper's almost always seems to top, and prepare for a new collective opinion on the rock era's top songs. Decades ago, purists complained about trimmed down CD cases dwarfing album cover art, once nicely presented on a 12-by-12 canvas. Now, we're in danger of losing the art form entirely.
Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
So bid adieu to those "best" album lists, which Sgt. Pepper's almost always seems to top, and prepare for a new collective opinion on the rock era's top songs. Decades ago, purists complained about trimmed down CD cases dwarfing album cover art, once nicely presented on a 12-by-12 canvas. Now, we're in danger of losing the art form entirely.
Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-26-2007 @ 11:45PM
gslv said...
It's about time. But rather than say "death of the album" I'd rather say "return of the single". It's been missing too long. Albums should always be around. Even so, the singles are digital downloads. There will always be people who won't have computers etc. You think it's easy managing a computer? I would have issued simple single discs in plastic sleeves, without hard cases, hopefully for no more than $2.50. Singles have really been missing.