British rock trio Muse revealed to music newspaper NME Friday that the band's new material may be released more "organically" in the future, versus reserving it for an album release. This idea of taking the "album" out of the equation is something that many bands have been quoted as saying in the last couple of years, most notably Radiohead. Drummer Dom Howard is quoted as saying that the new methods of digital releasing and downloading "presents a canvas to do whatever you want and just release music as and when it is ready to release," that is, more organically.

The new "canvas to do whatever you want" should not indicate that Muse (or any other band) is "against the concept of releasing an album in the traditional format." Howard maintains, "If we group a bunch of tracks together, it's because they're meant to be together as a unit." The new formats are most exciting for new listeners and consumers, in Howard's opinion, since they do not typically purchase an album on CD. Despite Radiohead's success at releasing an album solely via the internet (and for free), Howard also denied that Muse would duplicate that method. He and his Muse bandmates just remain open to new ideas for the music industry.

Organically released music would make more sense in the market as it grows closer and closer toward single-track downloads. The most obvious case in favor of releasing music as soon as it is ready is Coldplay's recent free download of single "Violet Hill" in support of the band's new album. While it was not released as soon as it was ready and was intended to directly promote the album, it did enjoy high downloads and put word about the band, the band's return, and the new album out there rapidly and well in advance of the album's release next month. Singles did not originally correspond directly to albums, so why shouldn't the music industry return to that idea?