We Don't Need No Stinkin' Albums!!!!

So…lately I'm finding it hard to please myself. As far music tastes go that is. I've been noticing more and more that I don't buy/download full albums except for rare occasions. And even that is just so I can pick and choose the songs I want to put them on my iPod and then I never ever listen to that album again. I buy most of my music a la carte; a track here, a track there--all different artists, and more importantly, all different types of genres. I have no idea how to build coherent playlists out of the hodgepodge of tracks in my iTunes library.

I remember reading years ago when iTunes became popular that this is how music was going to be consumed in the very near future and I'm experiencing it first hand. This is probably the very reason why music sales are down the past few years not piracy! Back in the day the only singles you could buy a la carte were officially released. So you had to cart around a whole CD or (God forbid) cassette (what's that?!) with just one song on it; maybe a few remixes on the B side. Now every track is available for consumption as its own little piece of that artist's catalogue, if you want it, it's yours. I actually find it hard to justify the old model of putting out a 10-15 track album every few years when faced with the new ways music is being consumed. Look at Billboard: on the singles-plotting charts platinum diamonds and gold circles decorate way more singles than do their full-length counterparts on the album charts. Ringtones, singles….we don't need no stinkin' albums!