The “death of the album” should be argued from the current “tweens” point of view. Most of my friends are parents of teenagers. All are inseparable from their ipods, zunes, and bit torrent clients. I do not know of one of them who obtains their music legally or otherwise that listens to full albums. The closest they come is making a playlist of their favorite artist’s best songs.

I would argue many who are still clinging to the album (even in digital format) are of a certain age who grew up with the album concept as their experience. The real test of the album will come as this generation who was raised on digital media chooses to embrace or not embrace the “digital album.”

The broader question is: when people are able to download albums for free, how can artists survive and keep creating? Bands WILL stop making albums before too long. In my own region, that’s the trend. The cost of making an album was prohibitive at the best of times and now there is little-to-no prospect of recouping money through sales. Enter “the Single Song Marketplace”. Suddenly here is an ostensible life-line for struggling musicians. Why make a whole album when the framework is there to record singles and get the same returns?

You write of people buying fewer albums in relation to singles:

“…this is because people are buying less albums, period, because, frankly: what’s the point when music’s free?”

Of course this is true, but the single digital download market is exploiting this very grave situation at the ultimate expense of the album.

The difference between the industry now and in ’96 when CD single sales were booming is that back then there wasn’t a suffocating monster (free downloads) working in parallel with the CD single to bring down the album. In the mid nineties, CD album sales actually grew in tandem with CD single sales so i don’t know if this is a very helpful comparison to draw with today’s situation.

I agree with you that people will continue to listen to albums but the problem doesn’t lie with some theoretical lack of public interest in the form. The real changes are happening less at the consumer level where you’ve focused your argument, and more at the creative and production levels where the new economy is hamstringing artists’ ability to produce and develop. Yes, the huge bands that you’ve referenced in your blog will probably keep making albums but down in the breeding grounds of music’s next generation, the album is becoming an increasingly unworkable proposition.

B

PS – By the inclusion of the signed Morrisey at the top there I’m guessing you are part of a generation who grew up with the album form being central to the cultural musical experience. The new wave of consumers, born directly into the world of high speed broadband, will have no such allegiance.

This is not a post about Pitchfork. It’s a post about a trend.