Albums Are Dead - Ola Englund's Thoughts

[hardtop]

I guess it all depends on your goal or what one considers to be success. To me, writing a whole album and releasing it was my goal, and I considered completing that process a success. If my goal was to get in the ears or millions of people, would I do it differently? maybe, probably, but personally, I don't care; the process was the reward. It's so unlikely that tens of millions of people are going to see or hear you anyway, so you might as well do it whatever way makes you happy. It's sad to me that a band can't make a solid album and be rewarded anymore, but it doesn't stop me from trying to make it. I generally hate the current acceptable formats for videos, especially lyric videos. If a band that I am interested in releases a single in video form I almost always turn my monitor off and listen to it.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

Meh, I still care about full albums regardless of format they are delivered on. I like a full artistic statement that represents a body of work. That's the approach I try and take with my releases as well. What one person calls "filler" I call "deep cuts". I will buy that full album with the one known single on it before I buy the greatest hits collection.

That said, I recognize in a practical sense yes the album is dead as a doornail. Still, I'm far more interested in releasing a cohesive set of tunes as a "thing" than I am at pushing social media awareness with constant single releases. I have no doubt that it would be the smarter strategy for building an audience in the current environment to release singles to a wide distribution every couple weeks, much like the 50's rockers did. So a mix of occasional special mixes or works in progress releases followed by full albums seems to work to keep fans engaged.

When I listen I like to listen to albums over singles almost every time, even when I've got my Zune (still working!) on shuffle it's shuffling albums not songs.

^^^ This.

 

[Ric5]

One man's thoughts on the state of things. I can't say I strongly disagree with him.

(a bit of NSFW language)


He's not a household name, but he's got 225K YouTube subscribers, with over 56 million video views. He's been in some decent metal bands, and he's started his own guitar company. I'd say he might be worth listening to for 5 minutes.

Ya this confirms that there is no money in music except for the 1% at the top

 

[Sam Evans]

I don't know. All the people I deem relevant to my musical interests are either dead or still making full albums.

Or, in some cases, both ...
Invalid Link Removed

 

[redwingxix]

The fact that bands and performers of the time were capable of creating ten to fifteen songs new songs a year may also have been a factor. It seems now that anyone that has two songs that people have heard of released within a year or two then you are performing at 20,000 seat arenas. The bar is lower, but the competition is much higher.

The technology aspect of it is interesting too. It's come full circle in that the releasing music now doesn't have to involve pressing a record, making a tape (remember cassingles?) or burning a cd. Perhaps the record companies viewed full albums as having a higher profit margin than single releases and now it has gone back the other way,.

 

[mmon77]

I'm not familiar with Ola Englund, or his guitars, but I do agree with most of what he says.

Sure, there are some of us that still like albums. It's what we are familiar with. I still buy CD's too, because they sound better, but most of the younger people don't. They grew up in the streaming/music stealing age where you just download what you want. I agree that they miss out on the deep cuts too. Those are usually my favorites on any given album.

At the same time, it's amazing that any person with the means can release a song, or multiple songs that can reach everyone in the world, without the help of a label. And, you can do it all without even leaving your home.

 

[Bassbeater]

The amount of work I put into a single now is far more than I used to put into an EP or album with a band. The advent(re-emergence) of the age of the single has expanded my art, not limited it. I'm not trying to change reality or dispute it, I'm trying to utilize it.
Apologies, but if Ola's video seems wrong or controversial, you are likely way behind the curve.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

Another thing...

Go to iTunes and look at any recent album release. Almost all have extra "album only" tracks to encourage buying the whole album.

 

[PWRL]

I think of an album as the collection of songs, rather than just the physical format, such as LP, CD, ect. I still buy full albums in various formats. I haven't bought a CD in a couple years, but but have purchased used vinyl, new vinyl with download codes, and digital albums. The last several albums I've purchased have been digital, which is fine by me. Most of them are new(er) bands which I mainly discover on a few different YouTube channels. Not all of these bands use physical formats, either. Who knows how much they even sell. I buy it, though. I don't buy any music a song at a time. I prefer to buy the album and see what else they have going on.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

Apologies, but if Ola's video seems wrong or controversial, you are likely way behind the curve.

I agree with that to an extent from an artist's perspective, but completely disagree with it as a consumer. I want a better product. A richer listening experience. I don't want click-bait music designed to break through the noise. I want a collection of songs that takes me on a journey. What would Dark Side of the Moon have been if it was created to sell as individual downloads?

 

[fishdreams]

Well, kids are not my target audience anyway. Secondly in my corner of the musical universe (jazz, avant garde and assorted peripheries) everybody makes albums, and more than ever (whether it is bandcamp only, or a 125-vinyl print run, or both) because that is how you brand yourself, stake out your claim as as a musician. For every cd we sell, I probably give 10, 12 away. And that's cool; albums aren't dead-they just became business cards.

 

[hardtop]

strangely enough almost all the music that I'm personally interested in, including new music, is available on vinyl. It must be a genre thing. Sometimes, when I come across a really new band that I like, they will only have digital formats available for download; but 9 out of 10 times, when I discover something I like, I can get it on vinyl (and I do)

 

[I am Soma]

The amount of work I put into a single now is far more than I used to put into an EP or album with a band. The advent(re-emergence) of the age of the single has expanded my art, not limited it. I'm not trying to change reality or dispute it, I'm trying to utilize it.
Apologies, but if Ola's video seems wrong or controversial, you are likely way behind the curve.

he has an opinion and i respect it....i don't entirely agree with him but opinions are fun.

 

[CapnSev]

These threads are so depressing for me for whatever reason. I feel like good* music has no value or place anymore.

*good meaning music played by folks that play instruments and aren’t doctored up by digital help. Your interpretation of good might be different.

 

[SactoBass]

I was tired one morning because I went to a concert the night before. I thought I was bragging when I said that I went to Queens of the Stone Age. One kid was like: is that a museum or something?

I won tickets to Foo Fighters between classes. When I walked into my next class, bragging about it, only one dude knew who I was talking about. How is this even freakin possible?

LOL!!!

A guy at my work who is much younger than me (he is in his late 40's) could only name two of the four Beatles. I was stunned.

 

[Bassbeater]

he has an opinion and i respect it....i don't entirely agree with him but opinions are fun.

Your new album (Ire Wolves) presented in its entirety has 485 plays on youtube and zero comments after more than a year. I listened to some of it and like it. It's good, but you literally can't give it away in this format. I wonder how many more ears it would reach if it were packaged and marketed differently. Again, it's a good album, well played and produced. Nothing wrong with it musically.

 

[SactoBass]

These threads are so depressing for me for whatever reason. I feel like good* music has no value or place anymore.

*good meaning music played by folks that play instruments and aren’t doctored up by digital help.

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig +1

That applies to vocals too, IMO!

 

[Bodeanly]

LOL!!!

A guy at my work who is much younger than me (he is in his late 40's) could only name two of the four Beatles. I was stunned.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

What about artists like this who give people a reason to buy physical albums?

 

[J_Bass]

I like CDs, I am always expanding my collection, particularly my Jazz collection.

I also have Spotify.

Don't like vynil. Too much work and the sound quality of the CDs is much better.

Spotify or other steaming services are not satisfying. They are very handy, but when I am at home nothing is better than a CD on my stereo. Love it.