Is albums a thing of the past?

[cobrahead1030]

I still purchase & listen to full albums, but I feel I’m in the 1% of people who do.

If I were putting out music with a band, I’d want to make & release an album because that’s the way I like to experience music. I’d have no delusions about that being a path to success though.

If I had music I actually wanted to get heard; I’d release one song at a time on streaming services & find a way to get a couple of videos up for YouTube every year.

 

[311boogieman]

You’re old enough to have owned a lot of vinyl. You’re old enough to recall when cassettes came out taking over from 8 track. I know this because you’re the same age as me. And I had a shit ton of vinyl when I was young.

I really didn't have that much vinyl. My music collection (cassettes) went through the roof though once I joined Columbia House

 

[RaceU4her]

Yeah, you've gotta move with the times, but hey, there's no reason why you can't have it all. I have two stepkid Gen Z's in my house and they both have turntables, and both collect vinyl. Granted, the music they listen to is fucking atrocious, but that's beside the point. And as much as I love my old school shit, I listen to Spotify every day, in my car, at home, etc., because it's convenient. I enjoy doing "deep dives" on artists that I perhaps never got into enough to own their music. For example, I'm currently reading a David Bowie biography. I know a lot of his stuff, and actually own a greatest hits CD, but there's a ton of his material from the dozens of albums he's released over the years that I've never heard. I'm certainly not going to go out and buy all of his albums on CD or vinyl, but with Spotify, I can listen to pretty much everything he's ever done.

i get it, im not saying dont buy cd's or vinyl if thats your thing, i personally dont get any kind of thrill out of holding an album cover and putting a record on a player as i see people describe, but people are into it and thats cool. the not using streaming though, for reasons like "i like full albums" or "the artist might get pulled" makes no sense to me, like who is posting partial albums?? My father was a DJ all his life going back to the mid 60's, i grew up in literally a record store of a basement, theres not one record from back then i cant find on spotify. Underground bands releases i searched years for, some i never even found are on there.

A couple months back i randomly heard someone talking about Bjork in passing, i never listened to her before and all i had to do was pick up my phone and theres her whole career for me to enjoy in my car, at home, going for a walk with my ear buds, anywhere. two days after that i saw a thing where she said Spotify is the worst thing ever, and im thinking you havent been relevant in 25 years, Spotify is the only way anyone new is gonna get into your music?? im sure the Bowie biography audiobook is on there too, i been listening to all sorts of music related stuff on there

 

[Floyd Eye]

I really didn't have that much vinyl. My music collection (cassettes) went through the roof though once I joined Columbia House

I had easily 300 albums. Including number 305/1000 signed copies of JD Blackfoot live in St. Louis.

 

[VonBonfire]

I don't know how much of this applies to the conversation, but this is how my band works. We are mostly DIY. We record all guitars, bass, and vocals at my house. Bare bones set-up, but we make the most out of what we have been blessed with. We do track drums in a studio, then have an engineer mix and master. My co-guitarist is great with Logic, and that relieves a lot of the burden of relying on someone on the outside.

We also take the time to do demos and pre-production. We don't waste time when it's time for the red light. I feel like that's key with any musical project. The studio isn't the time to figure out who's playing what, or how to play a certain riff. I feel like a lot of bands miss that fact when they go to record. I know you're a seasoned musician, so I assume you work efficiently as possible.

I don't know the exact dollar amount we have given in each instance, but it's been less than $4k per full-length album, start to finish. We've done three so far. Because of all the digital streaming services, we only printed 100 CD's of our most recent album and focus more on t-shirts, hats, stickers merch-wise. It may be a bit more expensive per unit, but it's better than having product sitting around doing nothing. We still find that a lot of people like physical CD's so we feel it will always be worth it to have some on hand. If we need to reprint another batch, we will.

This is excellent advice and I pretty much did all of this for the last album. Demo'ed everything first. We recorded it ourselves at the drummer's house. The drummer laid his part down to a click and we built everything on top of it. I'd rather do it live but we did not have iso booths to work with and I don't want to use modeling stuff when I have real guitar gear. I did my vocals and mixed it at my own house with my son, who has a bunch of nice gear and plug ins. Then I paid to have it mastered and printed. The main costs were in paying the band guys for their time since it makes it easier to get the ball rolling when there is $ on the line for other musicians, all of who gig elsewhere when not working in my group.

 

[7704A]

Not dead yet. I know people who still do album listening sessions, but it's concentrated. E.g., friends who are nuts over Laufey's music will all listen to her latest album together. Same with the Swifties I know. At least one Swiftie I know also plays the newest albums on loop in the car for several weeks to "burn it in" when they come out. On the other hand, people finding new music through whole-album listens seems rarer. Instead, I think they first hear an isolated song on streaming and then if they like that they may dig into the album it came from or the artist's backlog in general. I think at least one said they're trying to get into whole-album listens though. If the whole album is worth listening to, that is. Some people only like one or two songs off an album.

Myself, I usually listen to music as an album, and select for music that is designed to be listened to that way, or at least labels itself an anthology/best-of when it isn't. Turns out the younger generations aren't opposed to this approach, even if it's not the dominant mode of listening. I have a bunch of Gen-Z friends and when they last held a Taylor Swift listening party, I attended and brought my studio monitors for use on the principal of supporting more engaged album-oriented listening, even if I think it's terrible music. Plus if I'm going to vocally hate on it I figure I should have listened to it at least once.

From there, on my initiative we spun things off into a monthly listening party. We randomly choose someone to pick an album (or classical piece, etc., no playlists, has to be something originally intended to be listened to as a whole), and then we meet up, listen and take notes, and discuss it after. So far we've done Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie, How to make love $stay by Marcioz double-featured with Ultraviolet by Used Cvnt, and Sun by Thomas Bergersen. I anticipate the person who's up next choosing either Rumours by Fleetwood Mac or whatever the "top" ABBA album is. On the whole everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, and a number of people have found "new" music that they want to listen to again. For my turn I think I'll choose Burnt Offerings by Iced Earth.

Edit: to the format question, the people I know who buy physical media are usually fans who are doing it for collection purposes, but one person (besides me) is doing it so that they "own" the music. I think Taylor Swift usually sells out the physical media albums pretty fast, according to my friends. Apparently she releases cardigans for each album too. Maybe you could release limited-edition fedoras with each album, @VonBonfire.

Myself, I usually listen on youtube first until I get around to finding a copy of an album if I think it's good. E.g., I just dug up a 1995 release of Burnt Offerings with all the cool artwork of Dante's Inferno. Need to get In the Nightside Eclipse and a bunch of other stuff too. Someone else said something along the lines of "Pay 10$/month for streaming, or pay 10$ for a new album I like each month and build my collection." I like that idea, and try to lean more towards it myself.

 

[Philhouse]

Great music comes first and foremost. It's got to be good songs for me to invest in any format.
Without that, I'm not going to spend my money on any format. So much of modern music is way too derivative to truely stand out and have the long lasting value to warrant me spending my money on. We've been using the same old instruments and equipment for so long, it's inevitable that fresh ideas run out. Sure there are exceptions of bands/people that bring something truely fresh and unique to a genre, but they are getting rarer by the week. I'll typically check out an album on Youtube for free and if I really enjoy it I'll get a copy to keep listening to on my various music players. If it's REALLY good I'll chase down the CD or a good quality Digital version. Format depends on the quality I want to invest in. If it's really good I want a High res digital version or CD of the album. I want to enjoy it in the highest quality resolution I can, on the best equipment I can. Sometimes convenience is a higher priority, like listening with my phone while I run or in the car, but they are not my ideal places to really enjoy good music anyway.

Vinyl is a nostalgia format that has been re-invigorated to bring in money. It's modern resurgence is a response to digital and streaming and the ease of theft and revenue loss. The industry rebooted vinyl as a desired format to create revenue in physical product again, one that can't be copied like CD or digital as easy. Yes, it can be ripped to digital, but then you miss the 'magic and warmth' of the actual vinyl, whatever the fuck that marketing crap is convincing people these days. You can't copy vinyl to vinyl at home and share it, and thats what they want. They convinced the cool kids that it was cool again and the earthy warm version to enjoy music, then the lemmings in society followed. Vinyl records used to be cheap as hell, you'd usually pay $5 for a second hand album, now these record stores are selling them for $60, $80, $100 each... its quickly become pure greed in pricing. The Cd sections have withered into a couple of handfuls of stock, meanwhile there are aisles of vinyl records. It's created a lot of money for the hifi industry too by selling a lot of systems play it on, money they wouldn't have had otherwise through streaming. Streaming, you only need a phone or computer and most people already have those.

As to releasing albums vs singles. I reckon releasing singles can be a good way to keep interest in a band, but I still want to hear an album's worth of great music from them. Having just a couple of songs here and there is ok, but I get sick of listening to the same 2-4 singles pretty quickly. I still want the full package, not just drips and drops. Singles can be a good snack, but I still want the great meal.

 

[rsm]

not at all.

Duran Duran released their latest album, Dans Macabre in 2023; still touring the world now.







Dream Theater released their latest album, Parasomnia, in 2025; 40th anniversary world tour continues in 2026









this post is certified neo-soul free.

 

[thegame]

The thing I like about albums is that they store my Polaroids with that protective film and I can relive my subject's final moments over and over again.

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

I think in albums, not singles and sure as HELL not in shorts. Dummies today only have patience for a 30 second clip.

An album can be a statement, a concept, a story even.

 

[7704A]

I think in albums, not singles and sure as HELL not in shorts. Dummies today only have patience for a 30 second clip.

You made me think. Maybe we can drive a grindcore resurgence via modern media. Should be able to fit a whole album in one short.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

I prefer albums, by far.

The best singles make trendy one hit wonders, the best albums make legends. I know that sounds like something you’d see on a bumper sticker but tell me it’s not true.

Two-to-three track releases feel like a commercial, a quick blip that presents an aesthetic but not much more. With albums, you can get lost in them. People remember singles or a couple of songs, sure, but people associate entire periods of their lives with albums.

Pretty sure I’ll always be an albums guy.

 

[311boogieman]

I prefer albums, by far.

The best singles make trendy one hit wonders, the best albums make legends. I know that sounds like something you’d see on a bumper sticker but tell me it’s not true.

Two-to-three track releases feel like a commercial, a quick blip that presents an aesthetic but not much more. With albums, you can get lost in them. People remember singles or a couple of songs, sure, but people associate entire periods of their lives with albums.

Pretty sure I’ll always be an albums guy.

There is a local band here (a tad younger than I) that has released 2 albums now and they just 'work' was an album. I don't know how else to say it. It has a beginning and and end and everything is connected, even if just slightly. But they know CDs don't sell and they have to be more active on the Socials.

It seems to me that pumping 0ut singles on Spotify every know and then would be more costly. Versus booking a studio, producer, engineer, etc and knocking them all out at once. But cell phones and 'Shorts' has got everyone reduced to that short attention span - quick hit - move on mentality.

 

[romanianreaper]

My band just got out of the studio and did a five song EP. We put the music up online and I want to do a CD.

We are going to do five more songs in the studio and then release it as a 10 song CD and vinyl. Probably more for us than fans, lol. I do like having something physical as a document of the music.

We are a rock/punk band and my bass player thought it would be hilarious to take our 5 songs and do a double album. He said nothing is more punk than having a 2 minute song and then nothing for the rest of a side, lol.

 

[GreatRedDragon]

The "album era" is now referred to as such in past tense.