For the record: The album at the crossroads

19 September 2014 - 02:09 By Yolisa Mkele
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Like a topless and ageing Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables , the full- length album may soon be facing extinction.

Over the past decade, album sales have steadily dwindled as music streaming websites that offer users the chance to cherry pick their favourite songs have become increasingly popular. Websites like Soundcloud, Spotify and Bandcamp have made it easier and cheaper for consumers to simply pick and choose the songs they want to listen to. As a result, album sales are dropping. In 2000 rapper Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1.7 million copies in its first week, a record at the time.

In comparison, Coldplay only managed to coax Americans into buying 384000 copies of Ghost Stories earlier this year.

The growing malaise in album sales led George Ergatoudis, head of music at BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra, to tell UK newspaper The Guardian that "with very few exceptions, albums are edging closer to extinction".

But not everyone is convinced .

Tim Medcraft, manager of independent label Do Work Records, said: "The business model is changing but the idea that albums are dying is really scaremongering.

"If One Direction can sell 4million albums in 2013 and the top 10 best-selling albums are selling millions, I don't think it's a dying art form.

"Singles have always been popular [but] a fan wants to hear everything an artist does, be it streamed, downloaded, played on radio, in their car. The distribution of music may be changing, but a fan will want to listen to a complete album.

"Dance music culture is more about singles than albums but that has changed over time and people like Avicci and Calvin Harris are becoming album artists."

Admittedly, when megastars like Coldplay have to settle for sales of a few hundred-thousand rather than 10 million, the album is not quite the powerhouse it used to be.

But just as it is no use screaming about a flood when you have spilt a jug of water, the album will survive because it will always have fans.

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