Stephanie G. Mathis According to many reports, full-length albums are declining as a listening format of choice and cultural touchstone. Music journalists are chronicling declining album sales, and digital streaming platforms favor playlists made up of individual songs. The album is facing new challenges.
This might cause modern musicians such as you and me to wonder if it’s worth investing our time and money in making 12 or 15 tracks instead of just one or two. The truth is, no matter what the latest listening trends are or what the journalists say, creating great albums will always be the best thing you can do to advance your career.
Albums are more likely to be played on radio and promoted than singles.
The release of a single can help artists gain a temporary following and can also make the lives of radio DJs easier. However, for media placements and radio play, nothing can beat a complete album. Offering tastemakers the option to choose which song they want to play and allowing them to interact with a longer collection of material will enable experts and insiders to get to know an artist much better than one song.
Few outlets accept music submissions for blogs, newspapers, and radio plays other than EPs and full albums. This could be interpreted as gatekeepers in the music industry unwilling to change, but there’s more to it than that. Music critics, DJs, and curators believe that collections of songs tell more vivid stories than singles.
While we can’t ignore the audience’s purchase of fewer albums, full albums are still important to making money as a musician. They are the best sellers on your tour merch table.
Albums allow musicians to make definitive and long-lasting artistic statements that singles cannot.
The world today is obsessed with artists who become overnight stars by releasing just one song. Although this happens from time to time, your chances of experiencing it are extremely slim. Although the music industry has changed over the past 20 years, the majority of artists find success through great albums. Each album garners a little more media and fan attention than the previous one.
Albums are a more complete reflection of an artist’s creativity and artistic ability than singles. True music fans, the lifeblood of music, may listen to music primarily through playlists, but albums are where they can fully appreciate an artist’s work. True music lovers want to understand your musical vision and story.
It takes months to write an album. This type of workforce requires musicians to put in more effort and be more demanding than when they only write a few songs at a given time. This can lead to a collection of strong songs that are then promoted as singles.
Singles are a good option if you want to self-release your record and don’t plan on making any physical copies. However, if you want your music published by a record label, represented by agents or managers at the highest level, and made physical copies of, then full-length albums will work better.
With an album, booking is made easier.
Album releases can help you book shows, whether your band is looking to tour locally or nationally.
Festivals, series, and corporate partners all want serious bands that can draw. They also wish for bands to invest in their careers and artistic narratives. Albums give talent buyers more information about how you sound live than singles.
Do not get me wrong. Albums can be difficult to produce. It’s time-consuming and expensive. And it often requires a lot of emotional investment on the part of the band. You might feel tempted not to make albums, especially with so many songs being released, most of them fragments in playlists or mixtapes. But it would be best if you didn’t succumb to this temptation because it’s what everyone else does.
It’s probably time to change your direction if everyone else is going in the same way. Artists who go the extra mile in any direction will be remembered for a much longer time than those who don’t.
