Metallica, RHCP spurn iTunes... (1 Viewer)

[David Lawson]

http://money.cnn.com/2003/07/02/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes

I'm not sure where the reporter got his Green Day information, since a number of their albums are readily available through the iTunes Music Store. Not that it matters; I could make the argument that one could download any Green Day single and hear the entire album.

Does anyone else expect an about-face once the Windows client arrives?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

From an artistic standpoint, I think the argument is totally valid.

Of course, the true motivation may just be money.

 

[Marc Colella]

In other words:

"We want you to pay for the whole album, so we can make money off the crap songs that you wouldn't have purchased otherwise".

 

[Travis Olson]

Hmmm, that sucks. In a way they are just sealing their own fate as people will be more enticed to get the singles by other means...

 

[Ken Stuart]

I'm willing to bet that I own more "albums" than any HTF member or any Metallica member for that matter - I used to be a record retailer and before that I worked as a used record buyer at stores.

Despite this, I'm pretty sure that "albums" are now a thing of the past.

Generally, the idea that albums were based on a unifying concept was largely a myth (for example, check out the interviews in the Beatles Anthology where they admit that the most famous "concept album" of all, Sgt. Pepper, was really just a collection of unrelated songs).

Usually, the one benefit of albums is that they represent music that was written and/or preformed around the same time. Since musicians used to go through good and bad patches, then albums were helpful in collecting together the better material.

Nowadays, 90% of albums are uniformly bad , 9.9% have one good song, and 0.1% are by artists whose work seems to be consistently good (the only ones who continue to do good work these days).

So, I think that the combination of digital technology and the lack of interest of the music industry in music itself, has caused the "album" to die as a format.

PS However, there is an easy technological solution for those artists who only want to allow complete albums to be downloaded, called "Album Wrap", which is already in extensive use in the P2P systems. The songs of an album are butted together from beginning to end as one 45 minute (or 75 minute or whatever) MP3 file, and text information is embedded that describes to a software program how to break up the file into the individual songs and what to name them. Artists can simply require Apple to only provide these complete albums. (And, for the totally technically inept user, the wrapped file will still play normally as an MP3 file of the complete album, much like a tape.)

 

[Marc Colella]

I agree that the "concept album" is rare nowadays, and I have to say the arguments made in the article are pretty weak.

Why is it that Metallica and Red Hot Chilli Peppers have no problem making music videos for individual songs? Or radio stations playing individual songs. Aren't these going against the "creativity" of a full-length album?

I guess that's perfectly acceptable since it helps them sell CDs. :rolleyes

Let's not forget the Greatest Hits, live concerts and CDs/DVDs that are geared around individual songs.

These morons seem to forget that even if a full CD is purchased, the customer can listen to whatever song(s) they like in any order imaginable and can ignore any songs they don't want to listen to. Doesn't that kill the artists creative intent? Why do their CDs contain tracks then? Shouldn't their CDs have no "chapter stops" (ala. some David Lynch DVDs)?

If they're that concerned about wanting consumers to listen to the full CD, and not just some tracks - then how about dropping the price of the full CD?

It's obvious their concern is strictly financial, and has nothing to do with artistic reasons.

The music industry (labels and bands) are hurting today simply because they don't want to adopt to consumer demands and lifestyles. The longer they remain stubborn, the further in the hole they'll be.

 

[BradleyOlson]

For examples of true concept albums, check out Marty Robbins's "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" and some Johnny Cash albums as "Bitter Tears," "Sings The Ballads of The True West," "Ride This Train," etc.