[ng12]

> The existence of that medium of music doesn't make sense in the current year given how people actually go about consuming music.

I'm not convinced. The standard 3-4 minute pop song came about because that's what could fit on one side of a 78. Albums came about because an LP (33 1/2) could fit roughly 40 minutes of music, or 10-12 of those songs. These formats proved to be a popular and effective even though the technologies that created them are long obsolete.

[mikepurvis]

Interesting to note that the play duration of an LP was not seemingly the result of intentional design decisions around sound quality, speed, physical size, ease of manufacture, etc, but rather a bit of a historical accident arising from technology changes, and marketing missteps:

"When initially introduced, 12-inch LPs played for a maximum of about 23 minutes per side, 10-inchers for around 15... Economics and tastes initially determined which kind of music was available on each format. Recording company executives believed upscale classical music fans would be eager to hear a Beethoven symphony or a Mozart concerto without having to flip over multiple, four-minute-per-side 78s, and that pop music fans, who were used to listening to one song at a time, would find the shorter time of the 10-inch LP sufficient. As a result, the 12-inch format was reserved solely for higher-priced classical recordings and Broadway shows. Popular music continued to appear only on 10-inch records.

Their beliefs were wrong. By the mid-1950s, the 10-inch LP, like its similarly sized 78 rpm cousin, would lose the format war and be discontinued."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_record#Playing_time

[nsl73]

Over 80% of my music listening is full albums, even though I haven’t played a record or CD since 2015.

I really hope the medium of the album survives, because I much prefer listening to a coherent and deliberate group of songs than any other method.

[lotsofpulp]

I don’t understand how an album wouldn’t survive if singles survive. An album is a collection of single songs.

[boomlinde]

That's a bit like saying that a movie is a collection of single pictures.

[lotsofpulp]

An album is a playlist of songs selected by the musician. They can be consumed as a playlist, or individually.

A frame of a movie won’t make sense without the whole movie.

[boomlinde]

> A frame of a movie won’t make sense without the whole movie.

Why not? It means exactly what's in the frame and what you can derive from it alone. The movie in its entirety may have a more profound and precise meaning, sometimes entirely different from what disjointed frames will tell you, which is the point of my analogy.

Perhaps songs-scenes make a more fair analogy. Some albums are basically collections of singles because the collection itself doesn't represent any meaningful overarching theme or creative process. I feel the same about movies. I'd bore myself to death watching another Marvel movie, but I'll happily enjoy some disjointed highlights from them on youtube.

[mohamedattahri]

Wouldn’t say frame, but more like a collection of scenes.

[nsl73]

> An album is a collection of single songs.

Releasing songs individually is a serial process. Releasing an album puts all of the songs published into the same context, and everyone’s first experience of all songs occur at the same time.

A band that makes a successful album produces something greater than the sum of the individual songs inside the album

[lotsofpulp]

I meant that there’s no technical reason a musician can’t release multiple songs at one time and call it an album, meaning as long as there is demand for an album, they should exist.

[URSpider94]

At this time, I would argue that the main reason that the album continues to exist is because it's woven into the fabric of the music industry. As long as there are Billboard album charts and Grammy's are awarded for best album, there will be albums. For many modern artists, they'd be just as happy dropping a continuous drip of singles.

[LoSboccacc]

a proper album is not a miscellanea of song, it's crafted on a theme or with a specific journey in mind

[Nasrudith]

Price bundling for one - even without any synergistic benefits like telling a whole story over an album.

[jbritton]

I love the album format. Long live albums.