Obviously, consumers are buying more and more music digitally and the portion of it that is random/individual songs is growing, while the purchase of complete albums, digitally or otherwise, is decreasing. On a basic level we're going back to the pre-mid '60s era, when albums were simply a collection of singles put together after an artist had a couple of hits ("Now they're here, all your favorites on one LP!") before The Beatles, Bob Dylan and others made them statements of purpose, and not just a handy singles grab bag.
The important question, then, becomes: Will this influence artists in their songwriting and how they envision and promote their output? In other words, will artists make albums anymore, at least in the classic sense?
Less than a month ago, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan approached the subject, as it relates to his band, in the Chigago Sun-Times:
In the end, we don't care how people get the music--legally, of course--as long as it doesn't affect the music makers' vision or drive to create. Let's see how things pan out.We’re done with that. There is no point. People don’t even listen to it all. They put it on their iPod, they drag over the two singles, and skip over the rest. The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It’s done.
Our primary function now is to be a singles band, that drives Pumpkins Inc. through singles. We’ll still be creative, but in a different form.
