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Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

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Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#41

Post by dizzystar »

jgforbes wrote: post #15
dhimes wrote: 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?

You didn't have much choice back then. A few songs were released as single tapes, but a full album wasn't much more expensive, plus many stores did not carry singles, or if they did, the selection was often small. There was no concept of a single CD.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#42

Post by [deleted] »

kp1234321 wrote: post #39
drb91 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose there’s more emphasis on streaming and singles, but when someone actually aims for an album, it’s as good as ever. If you want to avoid this, just don’t listen to popularity based radios like spotify. EDIT: Apparently it's not popularity based. I still find it's difficult to avoid single-oriented contemporary music. Ironically I've found pandora to be pretty good at this. Just ordered two new vinyl LPs this…

Spotify is not a popularity-based radio. It includes that feature, but in my opinion the product is more suited for selective listening. Maybe you meant to say Pandora?

[deleted]

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#43

Post by [deleted] »

mc32 wrote: post #6
pwinnski wrote: post #3

I recall reading that the push for shorter intros and 3 to 3.5 minute songs was radio, pre-streaming.

I think in the "45" era, it was common to have under 3 min songs. Elvis, chuck berry, etc. The graver thing for me is the awful lifting of the volume floor, so everything is loud. Apparently this became a thing in the mid to late eighties and persists. It's said MJs Thriller which has a couple remasterings shows the effect in action as the later remasterings up the effect.

[deleted]

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#44

Post by Adamantcheese »

PatientTrades wrote: post #12

I haven't bought a physical album or digital song in years. Most of my friends haven't either. I am always shocked whenever I see an album sell over 1 million in the first week. These labels have to be buying their own music, there is no other explanation.

I've started buying albums as more of a collector's item, especially for lesser known artists.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#45

Post by mikewhy »

dhimes wrote: 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.

I love albums: concept albums and gapless albums especially.

I think limited storage space on mp3 players did more to damage albums than digital purchases.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#46

Post by ghaff »

pradn wrote: post #21
dhimes wrote: 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.

I think that was true for the iTunes years before Spotify and other streaming services came along. Before, you had to pay for each song so you picked just a few you liked. Now, it's just as easy to play the whole album as to play one song. (In facts, it's easier to queue up an album than to play one song at a time since you have to choose what to play fewer times per time interval.) Anecdotally, we've seen whole-albu…

On still the other hand though, an awful lot of people these days just cue up some music style or artist as opposed to choosing what specifically to play. I know that's what I tend to do. I think it's hard to argue against the idea that the album concept has mostly declined in relevance since its heyday.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#47

Post by stefanpie »

pradn wrote: post #21
dhimes wrote: 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.

I think that was true for the iTunes years before Spotify and other streaming services came along. Before, you had to pay for each song so you picked just a few you liked. Now, it's just as easy to play the whole album as to play one song. (In facts, it's easier to queue up an album than to play one song at a time since you have to choose what to play fewer times per time interval.) Anecdotally, we've seen whole-albu…

Also wanted to mention logics new album, Everybody, and his previous album, The Incredible True Story, are great example of the whole-album concept but specifically interweaving storytelling into the album idea which I believe made the albums much more engaging and enjoyable to listen to.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#48

Post by noobermin »

rainbowmverse wrote: post #36

I do instrumental exclusively, unless you count weird vocal synths. Maybe the author of this study shouldn't have constrained it to the top 10... There's a huge world of music out there. The most popular stuff is a tiny little sliver meant to appeal to the greatest number of people. For me, things have only gotten better since discovering a bunch of weird niche stuff in the '00s, especially since Bandcamp and Soundcl…

I was going to say something similar but not as harsh. I definitely think that the internet has made finding niche music that less of difficult a thing, but when the set you normalize over is the set of popular music rather than all music, his argument is sound.

An interesting question (and more difficult one to answer) would be whether access to niche music has increased and more people pursue niches in general today than before.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#49

Post by ghaff »

mikewhy wrote: post #45
dhimes wrote: 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.

I love albums: concept albums and gapless albums especially. I think limited storage space on mp3 players did more to damage albums than digital purchases.

I think that was true during a window of time. When MP3 players first came out, you selectively ripped songs because of storage limitations and didn't just fill MP3 players with complete albums as might have been natural to do.

Napster, etc. also encouraged a shift to individual songs before iTunes took off.

In any case, for the most part, people were weaned off of the album concept which, after all, was a construct that was primarily a function of how music was delivered and sold.

Re: Has music streaming killed the instrumental intro?

#50

Post by noobermin »

dhimes wrote: 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.

I used to think this until I listened to a lot more older music. A lot of pop records cut in the 50s to 60s had no "theme" other than the generic love/sex/dancing themes common to all pop music. I think the concept albums we know now are a few of exceptional concept albums that are just as uncommon then as they were now.
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