Opinion: The future of albums

[Mr. Bob Dobolina]

Interesting point about Best Buy JG, the one in my neighborhood took out two thirds of it's CD and DVD space. Apparently they're making the big money on the electronics so they had to make space for more merchandise. Best Buy used to have a fair number of imports and curios, now it's strictly the top twenty stuff. Too bad. The music store to go to here is Amoeba Records in Hollywood. It's got everything, tons of vinyl albums, old and new, CDs, DVDs, vintage posters and various other goodies. A music lover can spend hours in this place.

 

[Powerage]

Album sales are up this year.

Digital technology ensures that physical media is on the decline but that doesn't mean that the album format is on its way out. Despite the digital revolution, individual tracks have failed to conquer the market. Clearly people still care about albums.

Album sales in the UK have fallen again, they keep falling year after year unfortunately.

Interesting point about Best Buy JG, the one in my neighborhood took out two thirds of it's CD and DVD space. Apparently they're making the big money on the electronics so they had to make space for more merchandise. Best Buy used to have a fair number of imports and curios, now it's strictly the top twenty stuff. Too bad. The music store to go to here is Amoeba Records in Hollywood. It's got everything, tons of vinyl albums, old and new, CDs, DVDs, vintage posters and various other goodies. A music lover can spend hours in this place.

My mate works in HMV, and they have cleared out a large area for technology - mostly Bose sound systems and Apple products. The stupid this is, almost directly above HMV is a full Apple store. It's ridiculous.

I noticed in London on Saturday, the independent record stores have to keep putting their prices up, and so the idea of a bargain seems to be disappearing. The other problem is, no where carries much in the way of back catalogues. And if they do, they're either an "import" or just really expensive.

 

[lady_barrett2112]

I used to like getting singles for those individual songs but over time I was more interested in hearing the entire bands albums if they were interesting enough on that one song. Buying individual songs to me is kinda pointless, better off just getting the album seeing as most albums I see are not that pricey, well here anyway.

I'm a bit apprehensive when it comes to buying albums. I've had many instances in which I've liked a song so I've purchased the album with said song and I ended up hating the entire album. Therefore I've flushed $15 to $20 down the drain. So I've bought individual songs because of that. Now the only times I'll buy an album is if I like more than three songs on it.

 

[Powerage]

The only good thing the internet is for in this discussion is making sure that doesn't happen again Lady_Barrett2112, simply because you can usually listen to most albums online so you can hear the whole thing before parting with your money.

Spotify is a genius invention for that.

 

[AboutAGirl]

Album sales in the UK have fallen again, they keep falling year after year unfortunately.

That sucks. :/ Album sales are up in the US. I understand the single getting stronger but I don't see the album format going away any time soon... Time will tell I guess.

 

[Manny2014]

Compilation albums need to go away though, stop releasing so many of them, its just money grabbing bullshit.
Sorry but they are a huge pet peeve of mine when it comes to music lol

AGREED Riff Raff!!!

 

[Big Ears]

I feel the age of great albums is over and I cannot see another Dark Side of the Moon, for example, being released in the near future. I hope I am wrong.

 

[Powerage]

That sucks. :/ Album sales are up in the US. I understand the single getting stronger but I don't see the album format going away any time soon... Time will tell I guess.

Purely out of interest, have US album sales fallen in the last few years? When they say sales are up, are they genuinely up or are they just recovering so to speak?