The idea that the album is dead is nothing new. Most artists living outside the mainstream music scene have been saying this for years–with digital distribution there is no reason for the album in the traditional sense.

First an anecdotal history. Why are albums the way they are? Well, it’s pretty simple, the media always defined it. The LP was introduced in 1948 and due to mastering issues are usually limited to 45 minutes (The format can actually hold more music, but fidelity suffers.). Since most pop and rock songs average at 3-5 minutes, that pretty much means you are limited to 10-12 tracks an album. There are of course exceptions (double disk albums etc.) but for the most part the 10-12 track rule holds true. When Philips developed the CD, they were operating in this paradigm, so the red book standard somewhat mimicked this rule.

Now you may have also assumed that pressing and distributing vinyl and later CD’s isn’t cheap, so it’s in the artist’s and label’s best interest to utilize as much of the medium as possible, therefore, if you are an artist, you don’t release any music until you have enough to fill an album.

There we have it, a primer history of the album. However, as you also may have noticed, fewer and fewer people are actually buying media instead of downloading it. All of the limitations of media and distribution are now gone, so why wait for 10 tracks before releasing your music?

Now some claim the album was done long before digital downloading took over the world, and I somewhat agree–bad albums killed the album. People simply got sick of paying for ten songs when in reality there were maybe two songs worth a listen. Also, singles were often hard to find, and not much cheaper, so people just grudgingly bought the album. Napster changed all that. No longer did people have to blow money on an album for a song, they could just download it. iTunes and similar services just legalized that practice.

I don’t necessarily consider the single centric music world a good thing. The 45-60 minute music experience still is worthwhile, but why does it have to be in the same release? Writing an album is time consuming and that time can destroy any momentum from previous releases, especially for artists that don’t have the machine or super tour supporting their releases. Also, there’s no real reason to wait anymore because indie artists aren’t having to cough up a bunch of money to press vinyl or CD’s, therefore, here comes the staggered release.

Think of it like a miniseries. Instead of releasing a full album at once, release bunches of songs that will make up the full album once the releases are finished. Other times it may be like releasing a short story EP.

Following this paradigm, I am working with some talented people on an album that will be released in two parts. There is currently no name for the project but it is a poppy dance album. None of the deep themes in the previous SDO albums. So far there are about two songs in the can. This should be fun. The goal is to have the first release in April. I will let you know.