Music vs. Cover Art & Booklet

Diaby wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: Diaby wrote: I've mentioned a lot recently, that I'd NEVER pay for downloads. That'd not be part of my collection. If I could, I would destroy the possibility of legal music downloading (non-free).   The booklet and the artwork are at least 25% of the fan, by the way. So if I buy the download that makes me a lesser fan? Maybe because the download costs less? Ok, I could see that ... but I'm also getting less "overhead". Today booklet and cover art are often (but not always) done by artist who have very little connection to the band. I'd speculate that sometimes even the record label has a big word in what the album will look like, since it greatly affects the sales. I think that it's quite ok to not put the cover art and plastic case (face it, "jewel case" is a euphemism) on that high a pedestal.   You're not a lesser fan even if you can't afford buying anything and download illegally. But this "paying individually for tracks" gives more strength to the attitude towards music today: if I heard a song yesterday on the radio, I go and download it, without knowing anything 'bout the artist and the ALBUM (which format is dying, there are only very few who can listen to an album from the first minute to the last).

What world are you living in? Only very few can listen to an album from the first minute to the last? What do you think the people on this forum do? Pick only one song from an album and then switch to the next? I sincerely doubt that.

^ one track off Light of Day, Day of Darkness is enough for me...

Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ come on, it works fine for many prog albums. Even on an album like Dark Side of the Moon I can choose to listen to Money only ...

There is a big difference between "there are some albums I don't listen to in the whole because only some songs interest me" and "there are only very few who can listen to an album from the first minute to the last".

BaldFriede wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ come on, it works fine for many prog albums. Even on an album like Dark Side of the Moon I can choose to listen to Money only ... There is a big difference between "there are some albums I don't listen to in the whole because only some songs interest me" and "there are only very few who can listen to an album from the first minute to the last".

you also said "What do you think the people on this forum do? Pick only one song from an album and then switch to the next? I sincerely doubt that." and that was what I'm replying to. I usually listen to albums from start to finish, but sometimes I'll also listen to a few songs and then move to the next album. That way I can listen to several artists even if I only have half an hour spare time.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: In the last few days I've been thinking about it a lot, and I've made a decision: I'll buy downloads instead of CDs from now on. The music is much more important than the cover art or booklet for me, especially since even with downloads I also get the cover art in the media player. Of course it's nice to be able to hold the CD in your hand and read the booklet, but the music is simply much more important to me. I'll still be buying vinyl releases for the collectors value and nostalgia, or limited editions on CD when they also contain a DVD or DVD-Audio version of the album, but the bulk of my purchases from now on will be MP3s. What do you think about it?

^ for most mainstream artists this strategy is actually valid ... you don't need the full albums.

I'm very sure that the album will continue to exist for a long time - as long as there are fans of serious, artistic music.

^ There's also the EP ...

Many new bands are releasing EPs these days. Of course they don't get a lot of attention. But add two songs more and you suddenly have a LP. That's what I would do as a new band today ... publish an album with about 35 minutes worth of high quality music and publish it on all the major download stores. It would be 3-4 tracks, so it would be really affordable on eMusic.com or Amazon. And since it's longer than 30 minutes, I could call it an LP.