Good read and I agree. I will paste it here because people may not like clicking links.





HOW TO SAVE THE ALBUM

By QUINCY JONES

Ever since Shawn Fanning launched the original Napster—and even more so now that legitimate downloading has taken off via iTunes—I’ve been hearing lots of talk about the death of the album. It’s getting louder and louder, and it has our industry running scared. As you all know, single tracks—whether they’re purchased legitimately or downloaded illegally—are cutting into the sales of albums, which are far more profitable.

The big question is, What, as an industry, should we do about this? Do we deny consumers the freedom of choice of buying single tracks, as Jay-Z did with his “American Gangster” album? That’s one way of preserving the art form known as the album, but I think there’s an even better solution.

Artists, producers, songwriters and A&R folks: Rise up to the challenge and make your album so good that fans will want to buy the whole thing. I realize every album can’t have six or seven top 10 singles, like Michael Jackson and I were blessed with on “Thriller” and “Bad,” but you’ve got to try. If it’s good enough, the fans will buy it. Maybe they’ll want to whet their appetite by only buying a track or two at first, but if you keep coming out with good tracks and pique their interest, they’ll be back.

There’s actually an opportunity here to sell more than just the album. Release a digital track early. That’s an easy sell, but make sure the rest of the album delivers that same kind of quality and excitement, and they’ll be back to buy additional tracks and/or hopefully the entire album as you conceived it. And don’t forget special packaging for the physical product. If you and your team deliver quality goods, the fans will want to buy it.

Can you imagine a world in which people only bought a single download of Miles Davis’ “So What” instead of the greatest jazz album of all time, “Kind of Blue”? Or “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” instead of Marvin Gaye’s complete masterpiece “What’s Going On?” Or even a single track from Herbie Hancock’s Grammy Award-winning “River: The Joni Letters” instead of the whole collection?

We need to stop complaining about single-song downloads and instead focus on making better music that’ll make fans want more than just one song.

Seems pretty obvious, but maybe that's the problem.
After all, we are talking about the "music BUSINESS".



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Absolutely Brilliant Post. Quincy is the last of a dying Breed of people who actually GET IT. I can honestly say that I haven't bought an album at least in the past 7 years that actually was Amazing from beginning to End. This is the reason for the downloading problem. Why spend money on crap?

But I bet if you look at what songs are most downloaded from Marvin Gaye, it IS the singles from his groundbreaking albums.

Singles are just album tracks that got some spotlight.

Quincy is so right when it comes to album cover artwork. Of course people will buy the whole album if the price is right, the actual product looks and feels good ( you know, with a good booklet, a nice jewel case with some extra gimmick, nice pictures, lyrics etc.)., but , most of all, the music has to be good, no unnecessary fillers.

He is right.

He's wrong and so is everyone else here (apart from Cinnie). Albums aren't selling because most people never did like albums all the way through. Even if the albums were great, most people probably wouldn't know it because they don't like listening to things they're not already familiar with. People don't have the patience.

midnightmover said:

It's just that people now have the chance to cherry-pick the songs they already know.

I personally love albums and don't subscribe to the assumption that the single is necessarily better than the rest of the songs on an album. Sometimes that is true, but I am often interested to know what the rest of the material is.

Hell, sometimes the single is merely the most "commercial" song on the album because it fits a certain radio format and doesn't even indicate what the artist is capable of. I sure hope Quincy doesn't think everything should fit a radio format, and I don't think that's what he meant either.

Nicely said, Quincy.

Cinnie said:

I agree with Quincy AND you guys.
I wouldn’t be so reluctant to buy albums if I didn’t think the material outside of the one or two singles were going to be crap. I don’t hesitate with artists I know have a history of quality output.
But I also think we bought albums back in the day because we didn’t really have a choice. When 45s of my favorite songs became available, I bought those. Same with cassingles and CD singles. I didn’t necessarily want the whole album. I may not have even liked the artist but I wanted the song or the extended version or remix.

However, I definitely enjoyed sitting down with my big ole album and LISTENING to the music, studying the artwork, reading the liner notes, learning about the various songwriters, musicians, instruments, producers and engineers that contributed to the product. The world is so fast today adults don’t have the time, kids don’t have the patience (or interest).

And now albums are so long... back in the day there were only 9 - 12 songs to get to learn 2 or 3 of which we already probably knew about. Now you’ve got albums with 17 or 21 tracks! Just because you have the space doesn’t mean you have to fill it and a portion of that may be interludes, reprises, skits, etc. If I wanted a skit I’d turn on the TV!
[Edited 10/8/08 10:39am]
[Edited 10/8/08 10:40am]

One More Words Of Wisdom:

Not only should all of the songs on an album need to be good, but make sure THAT album doesn't have more than 12 songs.

Examples:

Thriller only has 9 songs.

Purple Rain only has 9 songs.

Rumours only has 11 songs.

Can't Slow Down only has 8 songs.

RN 1814 only has 12 songs.

midnightmover said:

I'd have to totally disagree.

Your opinion may be true for current listeners with short attention spans.
When I was coming up, part of the beauty of listening to complete albums were the gems you would find that were not the songs you were already familiar with.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

love Q but I don't think it would help...I have friends with huge music collections pre-illegal downloads...cassettes, albums the works..post "download" era they don't buy any cd's...even the ones they like. You can thumb through their whole collection There was also a poll that came out last year that said only half of teenagers even bought cd's that year the other half just downloaded it. I really don't know how artist make money for that matter labels. The music biz as we know it is dead!

People have long bought singles, it was only when we got rid of the 45 that it started to suffer. Who wants a $5 cd single with a few crappy remixes?

Downloads are bringing back the single, and I think that's fine.

Now, do I wish more artists would make more better albums? YES!!

theAudience said:

I´m definately with you on this, the Audience.

theAudience said:

I believe that's a huge slice of the music listener market pie.

Cinnie said:

I agree with Q. It's simple and plain just deliver the goods, be it singles or full album in physical or digital form, they'll be back for more.

I couldn't wait to get my mitts on the LP for the none radio play jams.

"Q" gave a lecture on the 'Hill Top' @ McFarlin Auditorium on the Campus of SMU yesterday, part of the Tate Lecture Series...

StarMon said:

The only way this happens is to have a kick-ass single though.

We're going around in circles

Cinnie said:

I agree with ya' to a certain extent, having a kick-ass single helps..a whole lot, probably more than ever.. nowadays. I remember buying LP's or getting promo LP's and diggin' the deep cut's more than the first released single, but back in the day the artist were pretty good on delivering a kick ass LP with limited single releases, they didn't have to release 2 or more singles before the LP was released.

...and back when there were Disc Jockeys, you had radio jocks that played the deep cuts.. some more than the official released singles, ..and likely with a lot a flack from the radio "program director" and local major label AD of A&R guys.




[Edited 10/8/08 18:25pm]

There was a time when artists didnt have be told, "hey, just make sincerely good music". If we dont fund the arts in schools there wont be anybody left to make real music.

Why buy the singles, when you can download the whole album? Quincy is not entirely right here, I'm not gonna buy a Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey album when I can download them, there are only a very few artists who I will actually go out and buy their albums.

Its the way things are, the cat is out of the bag and can't be locked back in.

carlcranshaw said:

Great find!
Thanks for posting this.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Cinnie said:

That's not right.

There are plenty of albums released each year that are great/near great.

But they don’t sell for enumerable reasons -- first and foremost because the music isn’t even heard by most people or doesn’t fall into the safe parameters the mass consumer is willing to open up to at any given point in time.

To me the best marriage for music has and will always be vinyl. And, no, this is not another fidelity debate.

I’m talking 30-45 minute albums that perfectly suited both the writer and the listener for more than 7 decades. I’m talking 45s that not only produced a single but for obvious reasons needed a flip side that didn’t necessarily have to fit the context of an album. I’m talking about something that would allow for statements bigger than a single and smaller than an album (EPs).

And, lastly, I’m talking about a canvas that was big enough for actual artwork and liner notes that didn’t demand a magnifying glass.

But we’re in the digital age now, so we can do absolutely anything, right?

So why not go back to this time-proven musical concept, with AFFORDABLE pricing that would encourage all different types of sales (LPs, EPs, 45s)?

And if you occasionally have more to say, like Stevie did with :Songs in the Key of Life" or Prince with "Sign ‘O’ the Times", release a double LP. Not only is that an artistic watermark, but an obvious marketing one. Erykah Badu hasn't just created a bunch of filler, she actually thinks she has a "double" in her. Wow. Let's see.

Then of course you need a better infrastructure to help consumers who don’t have hundreds of hours each month to dedicate to the incredibly difficult task of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Enough of that silly talk talk already.

No one is going to fix radio or bring a more defined concept to the album or single format anytime soon.

It’s all about what proves to bring in the most money in the short term; which ultimately serves neither the creator nor the consumer.

So let those ring tones get heard 'round the world. Are we having fun yet?
[Edited 10/13/08 21:50pm]