How many of you still sit and listen to an album in its entirety, in the order as intended by the artists? I can't help but notice how it is much less likely these days than back in the day when you had to get up and physically change the CD.
I'm talking about 'album music' as opposed to DJ'ing, singles and vinyl etc.
It's so easy to shuffle tunes around with mp3 players, massive playlists, the random button. Most electronic music albums are really a collection of singles, but there are exceptions. Albums from guys like deep chord really work best when listened all the way through, same goes for a lot of post rock type work, a fair chunk of hiphop and other electronica.
Interestingly, people seem more than happy to sit through an hour long mp3 of a podcast. With that in mind, do you think you would be open to the idea of an album that was packaged as one long mp3 in digital format, with the view of encouraging a 'proper' listen? Or does the idea seem patronising to you at all?
I'm talking about a progressive collection of sounds or movements that are not conducive to DJ'ing and aren't necessarily distinguishable 'tracks' on their own. From the producers point of view, kind of like building a DJ set from the ground up I guess?
It's something that already happens with a handful of 'trackless' CD albums, or albums where tracks are cut into 2-4 larger chunks, but I think the necessity is not needed so much there as people tend to put CD's on and listen to them properly.
There may be some logistical difficulties with the way digital music is sold and cataloguing as well.
I guess there are other problems with MP3 albums. I love that I can get so many of them so easily, but there is a bit of lost magic. No artwork, liner notes etc. This is something we've probably discussed here before. What ways are you seeing music 'packaged' (not necessarily physically) that still fits in with how people access media but provides something a bit more special than a handful of mp3s? Perhaps other means of sharing music with people are not via the usual retail method, incorporated with other mediums of art perhaps. I think Corey (Kwality) made an excellent point with me when he noted that if you think of how music is enjoyed historically, perhaps the idea of physically buying recorded music directly in its own right is just a little cultural blip on the radar that really only lasted a couple of generations? I think vinyl only really occurred after the turn of the century, end even then most people would have got their music from live performances, either casually and formally.
I did write this in response to something YI wrote - then edited. Cheat. 
