We’ve mentioned quite often the positive influence that the streaming boom has had in the music industry, particularly in helping it overcome a sluggish early 2000s with some solid growth. One of the main drivers of that growth has been the streaming giants’ abilities to curate top-notch playlists which have become the new ‘go-to’ source for finding music.
According to the Music Business Association, playlists have become so popular that they now account for over 30% of all music listening time across all ages – albums, in contrast, have dipped to 22%. Playlists still trail single tracks by a large degree (at 46%), but make no mistake – the era of the playlist is just dawning.
Since 2000, album sales have declined 30% for various reasons. Online music distribution stores like the iTunes store kicked off the decline early on while singles continued to grow in prominence. EDM, in particular, has seen its fair share of artist focus more on singles than full-length albums – relative to other genres at least. Calvin Harris who is one of the only EDM artists to truly accomplish mainstream album success has supposedly gone on the record about abandoning the album format while the current kings of EDM, The Chainsmokers have also expressed a lack of interest in writing an album for the time being.
we will always continue to release music. But an album is something different. Something more complete that reflects a time in our lives
— THE CHAINSMOKERS (@TheChainsmokers) September 6, 2016
What do you guys think? Are full-length albums on the way out?