Album art is dead.
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- jtb262
I've been around long enough to see my own six-year-old thread bumped. Feels like some kind of QBN Achievement.
I still moan about this by the way. To cope I've just become one of those hipsters who buy vinyl. Gives me that capitalist, scarcity driven satisfaction of ownership. Also better than CD's because the print is bigger, which helps for my aging eyes.
- Also, there's something about that intermission to flip the record from Side A to Side B!Krassy
- * Slowly raises hand while feeling a mixture of pride and self loathing at the same time.nocomply
- I have to say I don't have any nostalgia for the vinyl era. The sound is better on CDs (no debates, it just a fact) and it's way more convenient and durable.CyBrainX
- For me it's not about quality it's about experience. My ears are shot after years of live performance without ear plugs.jtb26
- autoflavour0
Albums themselves are dead..
dont get me wrong, it makes me sad.. i love the concept of whole albums.. but for the most part, its all about individual tracks..
and you cant make a cover for ever single track..- trueSunSunSun
- Whether this statement is true or not is heavily dependent upon the genre of music.melq
- @melq also trueSunSunSun
- I disagree on both points. I always download albums, almost never make mixes and have come across plenty of albums that have different album art for each track.CyBrainX
- albums that have different album art for each track.CyBrainX
- And yet bands are releasing ep's and lp's on vinyl and there's a massive revival...they'll need covers.see_thru
- utopian0
Newspapers, magazines, books, posters, album art, etc...
They are all dying breed.
- Bennn0
####bumped####
talked with a 22 years old, he said he never been to music shows because he dont have specific favorite bands, he just scroll Spotify and listen to songs... from many different bands, he never listen to a whole album ever. His music library is like 2,000 songs from 1,500 different artists, zero full album.
....
yep, the face of music is changing a lot since 15 years
####endbump#####
- Fax_Benson1
I still love digipaks (the cardboard gatefold covers that often have inserts and all the other lovely stuff you used to get with vinyl). Only they're smaller, so easier and cheaper to produce and easier to store.
Trying to get a crappy stapled mini-brochure out from behind those little bumps on a jewel case was one of life's great miseries.
- fresnobob0
Album art isn't dead, sorry. Maybe you only listen to mps or some shit now, but thats your bad. Vinyl and tapes are way more popular now that 10 years ago.
FYI, album art has always been a small square except for specialty items. Even when they still sold 45s, they didnt usually come with covers...
- stepson0
Really? It seems to me that music, and the marketing of music has never been more visual.
Album art is only dead when you think of music taste as a souvenir. "It's my music, it belongs to me.. See! I can hold it in my hands, and show all my friends what it looks like."
The artwork's still there, you just can't touch it anymore, and it exists to entice new listeners rather than reward the converted. Let's not forget that it's primary function has ALWAYS been to market A PRODUCT.
- ApeRobot0
Music doesn't last as long like it used to be, to much material.
We live in a time of permanent changes and everybody's doing music.I still believe in the album format, maybe because i'm from a previous generation growing up with it.
Still,you got to live with your time,things and mentality changes.
- pressplay0
*in a hippie voice* it’s not dead man, it just transmuted into another form
- e-wo0
You can make a cover for every track, and that's precisely what's going to happen soon.
- autoflavour0
of course you can.. but with the margin for profit being pretty much zero, the spare cash to get a graphic designer/artist to make something for every single track.. isnt that accessible..
or we will be flooded with equally mediocre artwork
- You mean the way it's flooded with mediocre music? :pjtb26
- And I say that as a lover of music.jtb26
- maybe i am looking too much from electronic music viewpoint.. but yep.. go to beatport and listenautoflavour
- each week, 1000's of new tracks.. mostly all sounding the sameautoflavour
- jtb260
I get that.
So - I may be totally wrong (I often am) but I think that maybe part of the reason Albums are dead is because the emphasis on the experience of a record has gone away. If the music isn't put together in away that makes listening to it fun (liner and production notes, lyrics, photos, bios etc.) then there is no incentive to buy the whole thing.
People used to only buy singles or 45's but it expanded to albums and you usually got a little more than just a front and back cover. I think if albums came along with more content, that was compelling there would be a strong enough niche to buoy sales of entire albums. There just isn't a good platform for it.
- ipods killed the album. before that, you had the whole CD to listen to on your discman..autoflavour
- and you would carry those cd wallets around with like 20 of your favourite cd'sautoflavour
- now if you buy music.. you click thru and buy what you like off an album..autoflavour
- Understood, still think that's symptomatic of the lack of value that comes with an album. Not the technology we use to purchase it.jtb26
- purchase it.jtb26
- autoflavour0
not exactly the same conversation.. but comes to mind pretty quickly
- fredddddd0
Magazines too.
- Douglas0
album art, much like book covers, should all be produced as main title sequences. like a 3min intro to get you excited before you start.
- scarabin0
so with print and album art dead now, what's the new thing?
- instrmntl0
Sadly, print and analog is dead. Album art unfortunately falls under both categories.