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Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

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Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#11
post #10

[I didn't read the article, but] I think the move to buying songs one-at-a-time has hurt the whole 'album' concept, including long intros, long interludes, and the idea of a body of work that builds on a theme.

Yeah, this makes me sad. I mostly listen to music when I'm working, and hearing the same mix of 50 "top hits" gets tiring really fast. 45-60 minutes of music that has some similarity and continuity is WAY better.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#15
post #10

[I didn't read the article, but] I think the move to buying songs one-at-a-time has hurt the whole 'album' concept, including long intros, long interludes, and the idea of a body of work that builds on a theme.

If this were true, wouldn't radio have had the same affect?

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#16
I think it comes down to personal preferences.

I love listening to entire albums. I don't have favorite songs, I have favorite artists. If I like the artist, I listen to an entire album by them. I have never once in my life paid for a single song. If and when I buy music, it's by the album and not by the song.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#17
post #10

[I didn't read the article, but] I think the move to buying songs one-at-a-time has hurt the whole 'album' concept, including long intros, long interludes, and the idea of a body of work that builds on a theme.

If this were true, wouldn't radio have had the same affect?

Radio used to be advertising for albums. Two are three singles from an album would get featured over the course of 6 to 9 months and if you liked them you'd buy the full album.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#18
post #10

[I didn't read the article, but] I think the move to buying songs one-at-a-time has hurt the whole 'album' concept, including long intros, long interludes, and the idea of a body of work that builds on a theme.

More directly, it has hurt the monetization of those concepts, which inevitably affects their popularity. The concept of the album is still dear enough to many people that there it will continue to exist in the fringes until something else comes along.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#20
post #10

[I didn't read the article, but] I think the move to buying songs one-at-a-time has hurt the whole 'album' concept, including long intros, long interludes, and the idea of a body of work that builds on a theme.

If this were true, wouldn't radio have had the same affect?

Yes, though a radio station would often times start with an intro and let the record play through the next track (speaking as a child of the 70's when progressive rock / concept albums were at their peak). DJs & programming directors knew that certain tracks would not make sense on their own and would adjust.

I have a hunch that it's not streaming that's really responsible, per se, but the "Shuffle" function that's been available since the CD player. I tend to have a large playlist and more often than not, I set it to shuffle the tracks. But I did essentially the same thing when I had a 60 CD changer years ago, too. I think this trend probably started there, accelerated when MP3s and ripped CDs became popular (prior to steaming services) and streaming is just the next step in that progression.

The way we consume other media is likely to part of this as well, so saying it's streaming is perhaps a bit of a stretch even if streaming makes it possible to jump more easily.

(for the record I have not read the article, though I scanned it to be sure they were talking about streaming services).

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