That’s a good question, about the effect on albums … the only way I know to respond is to look at previously obsoleted technologies. I think that when the album stops being the default, primary delivery mechanism for pop music and starts being a conscious choice that artists have to make, then it will really come into its own among connoisseurs. Most pop will be released in single, track, or (shudder…) ringtone form, but some artists will choose to build entire albums. Most people will not be connoisseurs.

I recently read that Brian Eno claims that curation is the most important skill for the new century, and I think this is what’s going on with albums. Used to be the artists putting songs together into an album-length experience, now it’s the audience and iTunes, the musical spreadsheet.

I always though They Might Be Giants were the first musicians to really see this, with their Dial-a-Song service (apparently still in operation?!) and the sub-30 second cuts on a number of their albums. I’m slow, so I’m just catching on now.

And, I do think you could build a fan base, one track at a time. In fact, I’ve toyed with the idea of helping Drone Operator do that – either release every song he’s done on a podcast one at a time, one a day, until he has no more tracks. Except he’s so prolific he’d probably be able to keep up with it until the end of freaking time.

Also, think about it this way… Plenty of bands made a decent following on Myspace – 4 songs at a time. And many of them will blast their fans messages when a new song is available on their myspace player.

So you may want to re-evaluate this.

But then again – I’ve had the privledge of seeing how you work, how multiple albums are built along side each other in different folders, as you find the perfect songs to go with each one. So I know what you are putting into it – and it works for many of the styles your perform in (Funk, Jazz, Electronic, Dub) where whole albums – the kind the should be listened to in in one sitting are the norm.

But Michal nailed it: this is all just a response to a changing technological landscape – one that the Majors can’t figure out how to use yet – but they’re slowly learning.

Independents need to be moving fast to scout the new landscape for opportunities.

Thank you for your comment, and you raise a great point.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that freedom of choice is the greatest thing that ever happened to music. I would rather people listened to one of my songs than none.

My position isn’t so much that singles are a carrot dangled to audiences as the lure to the album. Consider that artists create albums, whether they are a total work or merely a collection of songs. An album is a collection of ideas put together. While audiences now have all the power in choosing what music they buy, the matter of artistic integrity is still a valid issue.

If I wanted to release a series of singles, I would do so. Instead, I put time and effort in collecting songs that go together, working out a track listing, and measuring my output in terms of albums, not a stream of tracks. How you choose to listen to them is up to you. Whether you choose to have one track or the whole album, the important thing is you are moved by the music.

OH! I just thought of something! What if one of the future platforms for music is artists releasing their work one track at a time? Seems like it would be more difficult to build a fanbase one track at a time. Then again, the single’s power can’t be underestimated.

The question I pose to you is:
What impact will unbundling albums have on the album format?
.

With digital music, the album is as easy to get as the single, and for the first time the audience has the choice to acquire music how they want it: some people just want the one song, others want the whole thing. The people who give a fig about your artistic vision will surely spring for the whole deal.

Personally, there’s a very small percentage of albums in my rotation that deserve to be considered a complete, gestalt work of art, though the individual tracks are top-notch. I think you do a great disservice to singles by calling them out as mere promotional bait for the “real” product.