Is the Album Dead?

THIS IS A PAPER I WROTE EXAMINING HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPES AND IMPACTS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY...

I have about a 15 minute walk to campus everyday from my Union Square dorm. During that time, my ears are usually plugged with my iPod, which is either playing upbeat morning wake-up music or a news podcast. One morning, I was listening to a music podcast, reviewing the albums that were released that week. The podcast DJs were discussing a particular album, when one of the DJs, very matter-of-factly stated that it was obvious that the album was dead. He explained that consumers could now buy whatever singles they wanted off iTunes, and were therefore not obliged to buy an entire CD. Therefore, the DJ explained, if an artist wanted to sell his album, and survive against the competing force of iTunes, he would have to put together a concept album, in which the individual tracks were significantly linked to one another.

I continued to listen to the reviews as I rushed to class and only once I had gotten to class, sat in my seat, and tucked my iPod into my knapsack pocket, did I realize the weight of the words I had just heard. Was the album really at the risk of dying? I laugh as I write this now because it almost seems as if I had suddenly heard that a relative, God forbid, was dying. But, truthfully these words left me feeling panicked and uneasy. Would the album collection I kept meticulously organized and treasured with my life, be completely archaic to the next music generation?

With the introduction of Apple’s iTunes, the current music generation was faced with imminent change. Not only was digital downloading made easily (and legally) portable—especially more so than the days of such devices as Rio’s mp3 player—but consumers were able to purchase individual songs. Previously, consumers could buy entire albums to hear one song they liked and be left unsatisfied with the rest of the album’s content. Indeed, many took advantage of the new opportunity, and year after year digital downloads increased. While there were 20 million individual songs downloaded in 2003, there were 140 million in 2004, and then 367 million downloaded in 2005 (NPR). Last year, 581.9 million digital tracks were purchased (Gallo). Yet, here is the music industry in the year 2007 and in its seventh consecutive year of declines in album sales (Gallo). According to Soundscan, US album sales, both physical and digital, fell 10 percent in 2007’s first quarter, compared to the same period in 2006 (CNN Money). From this vantage point, it seems as if the music album really is slowly being escorted out of the music scene, with the single possibly substituting it as the ultimate money-maker.

Yet, according to some, this isn’t the album’s first near-death encounter. Melinda Newman, Billboard columnist, points out that “the whole concept of listening to an album from start to finish really started to go out with the CD. Because you really could just cherry pick the tracks without having to go over and pick up a needle” (Frontline). Before the CD, consumers purchased music in the form of the LP, Long Play. It was at this point that the notion of the album really came into being. Firstly, the LP further lengthened the time of uninterrupted music from previous formats, thereby providing consumers with more music at once (Pearsall). Secondly, the LP did not feature a per-track programmable interface. Selecting specific tracks on the LP was a difficult task that required extreme skill, since one had to be careful not to scratch the vinyl. Because of the technical structure of the LP, the music album was established as a full body of work, each track intermingled into the next.

The CD, compact disc, released in 1978, not only served the role of providing the consumer with a new music device, but was also instrumental in molding the way in which consumers listened to music (Frontline). Since the CD allowed for easy switch between tracks, consumers surely considered the music album in a new light: individual tracks that made up a whole. The CD’s subtle splintering of the concept of a full body of work was a prelude to the birth of offering singles through the digital downloading world.

Along with the change in the approach towards music, the switch from vinyl to CD also brought a compromise to the music experience, from a listening aesthetic perspective. The conversion between analog audio to digital audio (Pulse Code Modulation) is actually subject an added noise—quantization noise—because not all of the data is captured in the process, though PCM also results in the digital audio having a wider dynamic range.

The move from CD to digital also carries with it a similar compromise of listening aesthetics. CD’s 44.1 kHz are compressed into a digital compression format, whether it be AAC, MP3, or WAV; the track is lessened in quality so that it can be reduced in size and therefore take up less space on the consumer’s computer (Heid). When MP3 was the standard compression format, it was said that “the technology works best for bright, loud music such as rock and roll, [but] it makes classical music sound dull to trained ears” (Morgan). Interestingly enough, dial-up modem was also the standard at this point, and one downloaded song would actually take a little less than an hour to upload. That means that downloading an entire album would take almost a day (Morgan). At this point, the online music market seemed less threatening in the role of killing the album because practically, it was more time efficient to purchase the physical album. The album only really seemed to be in danger once hi-speed internet became fairly common—coupled with concerns of piracy.

Besides the birth of digital downloads, some point fingers at MTV for killing the album. To some, MTV ushered in a single-oriented music climate. Michael Guido, a music industry attorney, says, “The album died when MTV was born…it made the record industry a one-trick pony. It became only about a three-minute single and a visual image…[it] became about trying to sell a $16 CD based on three minutes of music” (Frontline).

Ultimately through, it seems that iTunes was the most instrumental in the actual breakdown of the traditional album model. Statistics for 2006 do indicate a severe drop in album sales and an increase in digital single sales. “Some 588.2 million album units sold last year, down 4.9 percent, while consumers purchased 581.9 million digital tracks—a 65 percent increase from 2005’s 367 million sold” (Gallo). This year, the figure for the top selling album is meager—3.7 million units for Disney’s “High School Musical.” This is actually the lowest top selling album for the year, in the last 15 years SoundScan has been keeping sales figures (Gallo). However, it is important to look at digital album sales, which actually grew 198 percent; 4.6 million albums were sold digitally in 2005 and 13.6 million were sold in 2006 (Online Media Daily). Yet, the fact still remains that the typical iTunes customer is more commonly buying singles than albums. Actually, a NPR broadcast noted in 2005, that “people who choose to pay for downloads are 30 times more likely to pay for a single than an album” (NPR).

This sort of talk of iTunes killing the album has actually been around for years. However, only very recently, March 29th of this year, Apple announced a new feature called “Complete My Album.” iTunes customers can now upgrade their singles to complete albums and receive full credit for those songs that were previously purchased as singles (Apple). Apple has merely done away with the possibility of a consumer doubly paying for a track, but also, in its effort, is surely attempting to extract itself of the killing-the-music-album reputation.

However, I must concede that even with my precious and delicately organized CD collection in mind, as well as a very real part of me anxious for the future of music, I still hesitate to fully blame iTunes for killing the album. I also hesitate to fully agree that the album is on its death bed. It’s important to realize the many facets of the online music business. For example, Emusic, the Number 2 digital music store, says that over 60 percent of all its downloads are full-lengths albums (CNN Money). It’s evident that there is still an audience for the music album and additionally that there are music artists who are supplying quality albums and not just hit singles. Another example that, to me, represents the music climate we’re in is the Gnarls Barkley success story. When “Crazy” was made available on iTunes in England, it skyrocketed to the top of the singles’ chart purely on the basis of download sales; it actually went to number one before the physical album was released (Leonard). That in it of itself proves the force of the downloading market, specifically iTunes’ single-oriented model. But what we fail to realize is that Gnarls Barkley’s album “St. Elsewhere” sold very well and peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. I think this proves that a single has the opportunity to drive consumers towards the album, with the condition that the material is actually good. I don’t think the Gnarls Barkley story is merely an anomaly and I think it’s possible for other artists to use the online singles download market to attract consumers to their album, if and only if they fully deliver on the album.

Did iTunes change the music model, the consumer’s music experience? Yes. Just as the LP and the CD changed the mind frame in which the consumer listened to music. I do admit that this new musical experience is saddening to me in some ways. For example, I just bought three spectacular albums, yet I uploaded them into my iPod, and there they went, disappearing into a shuffle of music. Somehow the album loses its charm and inherent magic. Yet, at the same time, isn’t it nice to listen to your favorite album at the start of your day, even when you’re rushing to class?

- April 17, 2007

***Works Cited:

“Digital Album Sales Triple.” Online Media Daily. 3 April 2006.
Gallo, Phil. “Digital Dales Boost Music Industry” Variety. 4 Jan 2007.
“iTunes Sings a New Album Sale Format” CNN Money. 29 March 2007.
Heid, Jim. “iTunes Encoding Strategies.” Playlistmag.com. 13 Sept 04.
“iTunes Introduces Complete My Album.” Apple Press Release, 29 March 07.
Leonard, Devin. “Gnarls Barkley to the Rescue.” CNNMoney.com. 27 Nov 06.
Morgan, Cynthia. “Technology Quickstudy: MP3.” ComputerWorld. 10 May 1999.
Pearsall, John. “The Audio Century, Part I: The Twentieth Century and the Birth of
Audio Technology, Some Thought on Where We’ve Been, and Where We Might Be Going.” Positive Feedback Online. Issue 14.
Sydell, Laura. “Internet Downloads Revive the Concept of Hit Singles.” NPR (audio). 28
Feb 2005.
“The Way the Music Died.” Frontline. (put in website) March 2004.