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Comment by afavour | Hacker News Reader

I really don't think we have. When I was growing up in the 90s it was the heyday of the pop single but there were still plenty of albums being produced and I think it's the same today.

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I can tell you that myself (and many others) still create concept albums as our primary format. It's not that people aren't still creating it.

The choice is still there for any listener that cares about albums as a format. I don't mean that in a negative way. I suspect that many people listen to both playlists of singles, and albums of their favourite artists, depending on mood.

No, the game has changed. Back then, the singles were typically accompanied by an album, even if it was just filler. It's better to release singles now due to the way the Spotify and iTunes algos work. Best practice is now to release your songs one at a time rather than a full album (at least if you aren't an established player).

On one hand this pretty much destroys thematic albums (like classical music, prog rock, Tool or for example, something like Alice in Chains' Dirt), but on the other few could pull it off and those who can are still doing it (ex: the latest Opeth album). So maybe discovering new music is hurt, because itunes and spotify look like crowded ERs, but there's just as much good music out there - regardless of your tastes.

It doesn't kill it as songs can be remixed for the album version.

Right, there's less unnecessary dressing of an "album" of filler. But I don't think that's a meaningful change. Singles drove the market then and they do now. Albums were still produced then and still are now.

Right but the approach is different. Now the idea is as soon as you have a song, you record and release it. You don't wait until you have 45 minutes or 12 tracks or whatever. The album comes out later, but it's just a collection of songs (and that arguably isn't really new either).

> there were still plenty of albums being produced and I think it's the same today.

agreed with this, I would almost go so far as to say there are more full length albums being created than ever before.

I think it's an AI-generated response.

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