The Null Device Blog

In an era where a music consumer can pick and choose tracks from a digital distro site, and in an era where the breakneck pace of the internet makes keeping buzz going practically a full-time job, I wonder…is there a point to a traditional “album-length” album?

The argument for a full-length album is usually artistic – you can tell a longer, more detailed musical story and establish a more concrete musical identity with a full-length than you can with a shorter album.  But, given the huge upswing in single-track digital sales (and the subsequent decline in full-album sales) it could be argued that it’s almost moot – if fewer people hear the full-length album in favor of a select few tracks, then the message of the full-length is lost.  Additionally, with streaming services like Pandora leaping in popularity,  single-tracks are all a listener is going to hear.

Conversely though, if a listener likes a single track, a band should have additional content for them to purchase – whether it’s an iTunes “complete my album” or just additional downloads, selling single tracks alone isn’t a solution.

There’s the issue of keeping up buzz, too.   Certainly for me it takes a while to put together a full-length album.  Sublimation took a year, AMDM a year and half, Excursions took two, this one is taking even longer.  It’s hard to generate enough content to keep the name “fresh” so to speak if it takes 2 years to put out an album.  Given how quickly the musical landscape can change in two years, and how quickly word-of-mouth rises and falls on the faceblogotweetsphere,  taking that long can mean the differencde between a response of “oh great, a new album!” and “Who?  Oh, they’re still around?”  If you’re Depeche Mode or Morrissey or Radiohead you can fill the gap with innumerable repackagings, limited editions, best-ofs, etc, or sping the hiatus as “preapring a comeback.”  If you’re a guy with a partially converted basement studio and a day job, these aren’t available options, so putting out shorter releases more frequently seems like a good solution.

Of course, that brings us back to the question of artistry.  Nobody wants to sacrifice their message for some marketing.   Plus, there’s still the appearance of professionalism that releasing a full-length gets you, that no number of EPs, singles, and short-players will ever get you.

In short, I don’t know what the solution is.  But I’m thinking about this probably a lot more that I should.