By Brian Huntley
Video may have killed the radio star, but reports the Internet would assassinate the album appear to be unfounded.
The album, cultural icon and artistic package, was not expected to survive the Internet age with its downloaded digital singles.
In fact, the digital medium appears to have resurrected the album to new prominence.
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Much of the fear for the album had come from the idea that fans no longer would purchase songs as a package, but only the most popular singles.
However, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) 2008 Digital Music report”consumers want to buy album downloads, not just singles — digital album sales were up 40 per cent in the first half of 2007.”
Single-track downloads remain the most popular format, with Avril Lavigne at the top of the “first-ever global music download sales chart,” produced by the IFPI. Her single “Girlfriend” sold a reported 7.3 million copies worldwide.
Christine Church, owner and operator of The Garage, a new recording studio in North Burnaby, B.C., says this focus on the single may not be such a bad thing because it could be giving rise to a new standard of quality.
“This emphasis on singles forces musicians to get rid of the crap. CDs have to be a certain length to be ‘an album,’ so what do artists do? They add filler — now all the songs have to be strong if they want to sell.”
On the other hand, those who want to create art in the form of an album can still do so, but they better make it worthwhile.
“It was definitely a consideration on the new album,” says Andy Patil, bassist for Canadian rock group Matt Mays and El Torpedo. “We didn’t want a collection of songs, we wanted a ‘balls to the wall’ rock album.”
Metallica, thought by many as the band that brought down the original Napster peer-to-peer service, would not allow their music to be licensed à-la-carte, stating they had no wish to contribute to the decay of the album as an art form. That is until July 26, 2006, when Metallica signed on with iTunes. To help make their albums attractive to downloaders, the band actually added material to album packages.
Selling music through the Internet has actually turned out to be profitable for many musicians, particularly independent artists.
“I read an article recently that said that Metallica makes two or three bucks on a CD. And that’s because they are a big name and got a special deal from the record company,” says Corey Ferguson, drummer for progressive rock group Helcion. “Whereas I put our stuff on iTunes and make 68 cents a track. … The record companies have been ripping off artists for so long, and now there’s a way to go around them.”
Album art — that is to say the artwork that accompanies a piece of recorded music — is also still thriving.
Forgotten, if not gone, are the days of the 12-square-inch art of vinyl records (though the art of those forgotten days is coming back in the form of collectible posters). First, there was the tiny art surface of cassette-tape cases and more recently the jewel cases of CDs. Today, iTunes copies the front cover of albums and allows users to see them; albeit in low-quality, thumbnail form.
When Trent Reznor, the creative mind behind alternative rock group Nine Inch Nails, recently left his record label, he adopted a direct-to-fans business model, selling new albums off the band’s website. However, Reznor did not forget the visual aesthetic portion of the album concept. When downloading digital copies of the Ghosts IV concept album, fans not only received MP3 versions of the songs, but also received a digital package. This package included the same pictures and liner notes that were later distributed with the physical release.
According to Kamloops artist Paul Filek, the digital revolution does not even mean the end of tangible albums.
“As long as people go to shows, people will buy CDs,” Filek says. “iTunes is great because you can get a song now, without leaving your couch and going to Wal-Mart. But in the end, people want something they can touch.”
