Brian Feener

Mark Cuban wrote a post today stating that the album is dead:

http://www.blogmaverick.com/2008/01/17/the-album-is-dead/

Mark is half right.  The album is pretty much dead now.  There’s no real draw for a person to buy an album in its physical form (or, while we’re at it, pay to download it in its digital).

However, from the album has come 12-ish pieces of albums - the songs that make up the album.  In this case, an album is not bigger than the sum of its parts.  It’s parts are bigger than the sum of the album (huh?)

Basically, a musician now has 12 opportunities to sell a song at $0.99.  A musician has 12 opportunities to  make a hit, 12 opportunities to make a music video, 12 opportunities to make a connection with the audience.  A musician has 12 opportunities to go on Letterman, 12 opportunities to (but it should be more) to update their blog, 12 opportunities to sell a ticket to their performance.  A musician has 12 opportunities to get on radio, 12 opportunities to promote, 12 opportunities to step their game up and make a hit record, 12 opportunities to  make money.  A musician can release 4 mixtapes between albums and keep their name in the news.  A musician can plug away and keep throwing spaghetti against the wall until it sticks.

OR- -

An artist has 1 opportunity to make a piece of everlasting material.  An artist has 1 opportunity not to distribute through iTunes, and Amazon.  An artist can make a piece of music so profound that the audience is doing itself a disservice by NOT buying the whole album.  An artist has 1 opportunity to put in special “e-mail subscriber-only” albums.  An artist can autograph 15 copies of an album, and sell them on E-bay.  An artist can write a thank you letter to the members of the official fan club.  An artist can release 10 songs on an album and any other recordings are deemed “unofficial.”  An artist can take the time necessary to make sure that the paella is finished completely.

There is a niche audience for everything.  Are you striving to be a musician or an artist?  Which is riskier?

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