10 reasons Why the album is not dead

I was just reading New Music Strategies (one of my favorite blogs written by the very astute Andrew Dubber) in which he asked "Is the album dead?"...

I think there are several reasons that the album is not dead. Here goes my top ten.

1. Reviewers and bloggers are critical to generating attention about an artist. It is much easier to get someone to review or talk about an album than it is to get them to talk about a collection of singles or a video you just released. It gives context.
2. For some artists, it is actually a lot more financially wise to record
   a cluster of songs in a studio to save on setup costs and time. Hiring
   and rehearsing musicians for only one song doesn't cost much less than
   hiring them to record 3 or 4 songs. And you will often catch a break on
   cost when it's a whole album involved. It may be a bigger pill to
   swallow at first, but albums have a far longer shelf life than a
   single.
   
   
3. An album also defines a certainly level of credibility and
   seriousness for an artist. If you go to the trouble of pressing 1000
   cd's it means you take your work seriously enough to go to the expense
   of recording that many songs and to then have them duplicated. That
   doesn't mean it's good, but in a very crowded marketplace full of
   infinite product, a physical one stands out a little further than a
   purely digital one (sometimes at least)
4. 4. It's much easier to get airplay on college radio and specialty formats when you have a
   CD. Not many radio people want to download a song to play it on the
   air.
   
5. It's much easier to tour around an album for a variety of reasons. It
   gives you something to sell at the merch table. Download cards don't
   sell quite as well and not too many fans really want an artist to sign
   the disposable download card.
   
6. It gives the artist an organizing principle for marketing efforts. This
   can be hugely important. It's like creating a brand for a specified
   time period. You can create a line of merchandise that relates to the
   album. A website. A storyline using flickr regarding the making of.
7. While people may hit shuffle all they want, the option exists for the
   listener to enjoy an album in the order that the artist intended. That
   shows that an album can have many purposes for the listener / fan /
   consumer too. It's more versatile than a single or an EP with only 4
   songs on it.
   
8. The album can be viewed as a work of art. It's a collection of work
   that will be defined, however loosely by some sort of theme that helps
   define what an artist is (or is not) trying to be.
9. The artwork, posters, postcards, and physical marketing materials
   generated by an album are important to fans of a band. They allow
   people to badge themselves with a particular time in the life cycle of
   an artist. That's not as likely to stick with a single or even a digital only release
10. Lastly, perhaps most importantly, there are segments of the music
    buying public that simply prefer buying albums. These are the people
    that LOVE music. They don't go buy the latest top 10 hits. They obsess
    over all kinds of new music and talk about it with friends. An album is
    still a rallying point for this type of music fan. And this type of
    music fan will recommend their new favorite ALBUM to their friends in a
    way that people who dance to the latest hit single do not. It's
    demographic that is hugely important to the launching of new artists
    and it's not filled with just old people. Even teenagers like albums.
    This demographic may not sell platinum, but they do help discover and
    launch the careers of many talented artists.
    
    
    
    Just because digital is an easy way for people to get music does not
    mean that it's the only way, nor is it the only way that serious music
    lovers will want to get their music. For these people who often shape
    the taste of what music is discovered, the album is still king.