I think that while the album format is not exactly the norm (I would argue that it's been this way for about 5ish years already), but I think it will continue to be a sizeable element of the music world for years to come. It may not sell, but I think that labors of love will be abound in this respect, much in the same way that I don't think it's possible for a genre to die anymore. That's at least one positive of the democratization of music.

^ Yes, I'm happy to accept that my remarks aren't quite as cutting edge as I imagined - that the album has already lost its once pre-eminent place.

And as you say, the album will never actually disappear. Not only are so many great bits of music already in album format, but there's something particularly satisfying about 45 mins of music that are linked in some way, (either thematically, or just "this is who we were recording with at the time").

Just as I was clicking "Submit Reply," I thought about the novel as well: you can write one as long or short as you like, but somehow three to six hundred pages still feels like a good comfortable length. Technology hasn't altered that feeling, so I guess in the same way albums will always be a popular way to produce music.

It’s been the year of Donald Trump, water on Mars and Drake, if all the Hotline Bling memes are any indication. Drake has also ridden a wave of change in the music industry, challenging the traditional album release cycle by putting out multiple records in the same year, while peers like Kanye West, Beyoncé and Rihanna dither about whether or not to drop their albums.

But every year is the year of Ke$ha.

Except that Drake has jumped onto the bandwagon of doing the surprise album release that all those other artists you just mentioned did it before him.

Yeah but were they all good? Quantity does not equal or supersede quality...

Finally found "Longplayer," the piece of music that I mentioned earlier:-



For more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longplayer

So far, it's been playing for seven years, which made me wonder how you might package that in album format. It's either an awful lot of albums, or an awful lot of editing to make a "Best of..." compilation. Actually, composer Jem Finer found an elegant way to dodge the problem - and you can buy his albums of "Longplayer" here:-

https://www.discogs.com/Jem-Finer-Lo...elease/9720058

Clearly just trying to one-up the Halberstadt installation of Organ²/ASLSP.

Not like those short-track merchants Bull of Heaven huh? Five hours? Pah! Write something with a decent length, kid! :laughing:

You know they have tracks that last trillions of years, right?