The One Thing We Need To Bring Back The Album Format
As anyone who reads this site on a regular basis knows, I’m a huge fan of albums. Albums allow us to really dig into an artist, and discover songs that will never be released as singles that we can relate to, and love. This is why I still put together my annual year-end must-hear albums list , and this year I even expanded it with a mid-year list . That said, I know I’m a dinosaur. The album format has waned in popularity over the past decade-plus. Artists used to be able to go gold, and even platinum in a week. Not so anymore. Now, rather than sales, they have to rely on album equivalent units from streaming for such certifications. Sure, there will always be a few artists like Taylor Swift, and Beyonce, who can generate album sales simply by breathing, but for the most part people don’t care about the album format like they used to. Streaming is always painted as the bad guy in this, and I certainly have strong feelings about streaming, and the negative impact it can have on artists