[giantrobot]

> Soon there might come a day when nobody actually takes the time to listen to an album from start to finish.

The "album" in general has long been an industry contrivance. Most musical acts would be much better served if singles and EPs were the most asked of them in terms of recordings. Because they're trying to fill "albums" (~44 min LPs or ~60 min CDs) there's tons of filler recorded all the time. Some is literal filler pulled from a fakebook and recorded just to put another track on an album.

Even with bands I love I can rarely make it through entire albums without skipping at least half the songs. I've been making playlists for decades (mix tapes, then CD-Rs, then iPod playlists). I'd much rather an artist release five good songs as an EP and sell it to me for five bucks. I'll bundle all the EPs together as an "album" if I want.

[daemin]

Well there is a difference in artists that produce a few good songs and then fill the rest of the album with other tracks, and artists that make an entire album be a journey of audio. There's also a lot of albums which are shorter than the full CD size, and a lot which max out the CD length.

I think like all art having limitations actually enhances creativity, since it makes the artist cut things out and decide what is truly important.

So realistically it can vary on the artist and they should probably customise their delivery based on a particular format. Singles/streaming for individual tracks, vinyl for something slightly longer, CDs for longer, and then maybe USB stick holding a really long flac file for those epic progressive sessions.

[giantrobot]

> Well there is a difference in artists that produce a few good songs and then fill the rest of the album with other tracks, and artists that make an entire album be a journey of audio.

We don't disagree. My point is most artists are incapable of making a good full length album let alone a "journey of audio". This isn't necessarily a knock to those artists, just statistics.

My issue, such as it is, is the whole concept of an "album" comes more from record studios than musicians. A majority of albums are just a few singles wrapped in filler which is sometimes not even performed by the artists.

Even if all physical sales stopped tomorrow artists that can make full length albums would continue to do so. Much like a concept album and radio play, such albums might not do well with streaming services. Aficionado "DJs" would still include the more stream/radio friendly tracks on their stations and playlists. They will continue to exist though.

For the "journey of audio" type albums I think Internet distribution ends up a superior channel to physical distribution. For one it's much easier to make a multimedia experience. Even if it's just visual stills to go with the audio. It's also much easier to provide alternate experiential mixes, say for instance a full binaural mix for listening on headphones or surround sound and a more tailored stereo downmix. Artists can also make two-way transactions like providing stems to let fans produce remixes like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done in the past.