Taking a quick look through Spotify, I can see that some artists, especially in the rock and metal genres, still put out albums, but the emphasis is predominately on singles in 2025. Where bands once sold physical albums to earn a significant income, it now takes billions of streams to cover what millions of record sales did in the past.
It’s no wonder that most of the popular artists today focus on singles rather than albums. And it’s not because they do not have the desire or the artistic aptitude to release full length albums, but most people nowadays, especially the younger generation, will not sit and listen to a forty-five minute full-length album when they have endless playlists of their favorite songs on their digital streaming app. It’s the 1980s equivalent of the mix tape that us old timers used to make and play on our Sony Walkman’s. But we still needed the physical albums to record the songs we liked.
Back to the 1950s
Not only are most artists exclusively putting out singles but for the most part, these artists are the year two thousand generation of music makers. If we look at the Recording Industry Association of America’s top artists by album sales, the top thirty only includes one year two thousand artist, Taylor Swift, with fifty-seven million albums sold to date.
On the other hand, if we look at the top artists by digital single sales, we only have three artists before the year two thousand in the top thirty, Eminem, Usher and Lil Wayne. The rest are all artists that have come out since the year two thousand, where the focus shifted back to singles due to the rise in popularity of digital streaming platforms. Even physical downloads have taken a back seat to streaming, although you can still download music on Apple iTunes.
I say the focus has shifted back to singles because singles was how the music industry operated in the 1950s, as a vinyl record called a 45. The 45 had the hit song on the A-side and another song on the B-side. Sometimes the B-side was also a hit, but that wasn’t usually the norm.
From the early 1960s on, singles were primarily used as the vehicle to get people to buy the full length vinyl album, called an LP or Long Play that usually contained about ten songs, five per side. This trend continued with CDs replacing vinyl in the mid 1980s and lasted until streaming became the dominate player in the game.
The Album
So what’s the big deal with albums then? Well, for one, the single isn’t always the best song on the album and often the album usually contains as good, if not better songs. Albums also give the listener a broader perspective of the artist, helping showcase their other musical ideas besides the hit they are known for. Sometimes, with a really great album, the listener can be taken on a forty-five minute musical journey in their mind, a feat a single could never hope to achieve.
The question now becomes, will we ever get the masterpieces again like Pink Floyd’s, The wall, Queensryche’s, Operation: mindcrime or Green Day’s, American Idiot?
I wouldn’t say the era of albums is over because they are still relevant to certain listeners and bands who know who their listeners, will continue to put out albums for the foreseeable future. But for the slew of mainstream artists burning up the digital streaming charts, I don’t think albums will be the focus now or ever again. The number of streams of a song are much more important and, in their defense, the only way to make some decent money.
But some artists are not in it just for the money and still have something musically to say. Thankfully, they still exist and will continue to fill the gap for us listeners who see music as an extension of our life and not just a here today, gone tomorrow, hit on an endless playlist.