Why do musicians release albums?

similarBlank

Why don't they just release singles only?

Reply 1

jacobys18

album is an experience. you need to feel the atmosphere of their artistry, unless you're a Pitbull or Florida fan.

Reply 2

CheeseIsVeg

Original post by similarBlank

Why don't they just release singles only?

well if u release an album you can see pictures of them throughout that year

Spoiler

Reply 3

username917703

Because albums are much better?

Reply 4

PrincessBO$$

To get people like this

haha you get the idea :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

similarBlank

Okay, looking at it from a purely financial perspective then. Why would a musician, who's only in it for the money, make an album instead of just making a lot of singles?

And, anyway, what's stopping a musician from releasing every song in his album as a single and why don't they just do that anyway?

Reply 6

TheDefiniteArticle

Original post by similarBlank

lol @ the notion of musicians being in it for the money in 2016 tbh

In the age of easy free downloads, the value of an album is in the physical media, not the music per se. Also, nobody who actually likes music would pay real money for something as superficial as a single.

Label requirement.

A lot of Dancehall artists do it. It's really annoying. Some artists like to release concept albums that have a common theme/inspiration etc. You can release a 'package' to the consumer filled with artwork/lyrics and it's more tangible than just a download.

Reply 10

PTMalewski

It wasn't only a matter of money.

It used to be to compose an album from a series of tracks that somehow fitted to each other, due to musical theme, non musical theme, rarely by tonation changes. Whole thing then had some more qualities, than a simple single.

And btw. please be carefull with using a word "musicians". Lots of today's so-called "artists'' don't have musical workshop. They don't need to, that is to say, as even more complicated pop music of past decades didn't require much skills, but in the past it was more common that pop musicians knew what were they doing, while now it's more common that they don't and they struggle to do it at all.

(edited 7 years ago)

Mooooooooore money

£1 each for 12 singles for £12
or £6/7 for 12 songs?

Also people aren't going to buy every single song if they're released as a single.

Think of singles as a trailer for a movie, except you're paying for the trailer and the movie. You pay £3 for 3 singles, then buy the whole album for £7 when you already have 3 of the songs anyway.

It also builds anticipation/hype. There's bands I listen to that have albums coming months away I'm pumped for

Reply 13

Dez

There's a number of reasons. You can likely sell more songs overall, as if you only offered singles people would pick songs they like and ignore the rest. It makes marketing your music much more streamlined, and gives a bit of image/brand to work with too. The latter bit is also useful in shifting merchandise and tour tickets (assuming the album does well). And though the age of iTunes has diminished the impact somewhat, the profit margin for producing a CD album is better than a CD single since you can charge more for it, even though production costs are pretty much the same.

Reply 14

Marked Target

An album is more of an experience than a single. To me, an album should be more than just a haphazard collection of songs with no cohesion between them.

If you've ever listened to Dark Side of the Moon then you should understand this. Imagine listening to On the Run as a single. Fitter Happier from OK Computer is another example of the same thing. As a single nobody would ever listen to it but as part of an album it works.

Wish You Were Here is another but less extreme example. You can certainly listen to a single from the album but if you listen to it all then it becomes better than just the sum of its parts.

If an album is literally just a random assortment of songs then to me its not really an album.

Reply 15

It's****ingWOODY

Singles are a promotional tool for an album. An album is a collection of work that reflects an artist's personal taste and style and it gives the artist a chance to diversify with their music and lyrics to create music that might not be suitable for the radio or popular among the mainstream and might not sell well otherwise. Hence why singles are often in a different style to what's on the album.