In Defence of the Albumn
Disclaimer
This post is written with the aid of a certain quantity of French brandy and in the ad-break of an Austin Powers movie. You Have Been Warned.
The world has abandoned the RIAA. Poor bastards. The major labels are seeing sales crash in ways that SCO can only dream of. So much of their sales, which used to be concentrated in albumns on CD or vinyl, are now in digital downloads. iTunes is the new CD store, at £0.99 per track.
And it's those last two words that worry me. When you can pay 99p per track, what are you going to do? Will you go buy a whole albumn, for about eight quid, or will you pick the two tracks you like at first hearing and buy them for £2?
Again, it's three words that worry me. The "tracks you like". The model of the digital download assumes that you will hear something and either like it, and buy it, or you will never listen to it again.
Is this your experience? It isn't mine. Take, for instance, the Coldplay albumn X&Y. When it comes to Coldplay albumns, everyone likes Parachutes. Why? Because it has Yellow on it. Let's face it: Yellow is a frickin' good song (remember, Austin Powers & brandy) and everyone wants it. It's got some other good songs on it, too; bonus!
Now, name a good song on X&Y. I didn't know of one when I bought it. Just after I bought it, my brother (sorry, Rick, it's all your fault) said, "Everyone says X&Y is their rubbish albumn" and so I didn't listen to it much. For two years I didn't listen to it and didn't like it. Then I started listening to it, just at random. It is awesome. This albumn has some of the best music I have ever heard on it. Swallowed in the Sea is presently the best song I have ever heard. Fix You comes a close second, Talk, Square One, What If, X&Y, A Message, Low, The Hardest Part, and basically the rest of the album are all up there.
The point is this: On first hearing, a lot of music is not what you like. On second hearing, you might start to consider it. On fifth hearing, it's familiar and you kind of like it. On the twentieth hearing, it might be your favourite song. Good music isn't necessarily what you like on first hearing.
What hope is there, then, for good music, in a culture that only listens to the songs they immediately like? If you only buy the songs that yoiu like based on the 20sec preview on iTunes, what will you end up buying? I know I would end up avoiding a lot of music I would otherwise end up liking, and so I remain a firm fan of the albumn.
This post is written with the aid of a certain quantity of French brandy and in the ad-break of an Austin Powers movie. You Have Been Warned.
The world has abandoned the RIAA. Poor bastards. The major labels are seeing sales crash in ways that SCO can only dream of. So much of their sales, which used to be concentrated in albumns on CD or vinyl, are now in digital downloads. iTunes is the new CD store, at £0.99 per track.
And it's those last two words that worry me. When you can pay 99p per track, what are you going to do? Will you go buy a whole albumn, for about eight quid, or will you pick the two tracks you like at first hearing and buy them for £2?
Again, it's three words that worry me. The "tracks you like". The model of the digital download assumes that you will hear something and either like it, and buy it, or you will never listen to it again.
Is this your experience? It isn't mine. Take, for instance, the Coldplay albumn X&Y. When it comes to Coldplay albumns, everyone likes Parachutes. Why? Because it has Yellow on it. Let's face it: Yellow is a frickin' good song (remember, Austin Powers & brandy) and everyone wants it. It's got some other good songs on it, too; bonus!
Now, name a good song on X&Y. I didn't know of one when I bought it. Just after I bought it, my brother (sorry, Rick, it's all your fault) said, "Everyone says X&Y is their rubbish albumn" and so I didn't listen to it much. For two years I didn't listen to it and didn't like it. Then I started listening to it, just at random. It is awesome. This albumn has some of the best music I have ever heard on it. Swallowed in the Sea is presently the best song I have ever heard. Fix You comes a close second, Talk, Square One, What If, X&Y, A Message, Low, The Hardest Part, and basically the rest of the album are all up there.
The point is this: On first hearing, a lot of music is not what you like. On second hearing, you might start to consider it. On fifth hearing, it's familiar and you kind of like it. On the twentieth hearing, it might be your favourite song. Good music isn't necessarily what you like on first hearing.
What hope is there, then, for good music, in a culture that only listens to the songs they immediately like? If you only buy the songs that yoiu like based on the 20sec preview on iTunes, what will you end up buying? I know I would end up avoiding a lot of music I would otherwise end up liking, and so I remain a firm fan of the albumn.
posted by Tom at
12:56
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