“I can’t have only a few songs off of an album, I have to have all of them,” senior Ethan Taylor said.
Taylor said that his love for an artist makes it hard for him to buy just a single song. This is a sentiment that not many people share. In 2013 alone, album sales dipped 3.3 percent while music streaming went up 24 percent according to music sales tracking system Nielsen SoundScan. Singles, on the other hand, are still doing well. This has some interesting implications and has sent the music industry scrambling for answers.
“It kind of discourages artists from making full albums and just releasing a bunch of [singles] instead,” junior Anne Barone said.
In 2010, Flo Rida’s “Club Can’t Even Handle Me” single sold 2 million units, but when his eight song EP came out, it only moved 11,000 units
in the first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This is not a problem specific to Flo Rida. Many other artists like Cobra Starship, Mumford & Sons and Phoenix have all struggled to move albums as well.
While the music industry in general may be headed towards a single- centered market, some music fans stay adamant in their love for full albums.
“I feel like you need to hear the whole collective album at least once to truly appreciate what this artist is trying to say,” junior Cameron Under- wood said.
Underwood believes in buying full albums to support artists, a common sentiment among diehard music fans.
“A lot of times, albums as a whole are a story,” Underwood said. “If you’re missing some of the songs then you’re missing the whole point of the album.”
– By Sawyer Davis