Can LANA DEL REY save the album & recording industry itself?

[graham4anything 2,859]

Lana Del Rey wants us to listen to the entire album, song cycles/concept albums, as has been the case Born to Die, Paradise, Ultraviolence, Honeymoon, Lust for Life, and the new Norman Fucking Rockwell

-all the tracks like in the others are there for a reason, with no filler (IMHO).

(which is also why petty arguments over not liking this or that one or two songs is silly, because everyone else now is providing one song

and the rest mostly filler or not heard and never to be heard.)

 

these thoughts are based on this LONG Rolling Stone © article that needs to be read in its entirety-

(only 4 paragraphs for fair use are printed out here

 

I may be biased, but if Lana can't do it, I can't see anyone doing it. And I agree with the article- in the end, this will kill the music industry

of which singers and songwriters and players (studio musicians) etc won't be able to devote their time/life to.

(note- this might not apply worldwide, but it does apply in USA and Canada).

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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-album-is-in-deep-trouble-and-the-music-business-probably-cant-save-it-753795/

© Rolling Stone, Tim Ingham

 

The Album Is in Deep Trouble – and the Music Business Probably Can’t Save it Sales are plummeting, and the music industry is returning to the era of track-led consumption. Is the LP doomed?  Make no mistake, the album is fighting for its life.

 

Sales of music’s most beloved format are in free fall in the United States this year. According to figures published by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the value of total stateside album sales in the first half of 2018 (across download, CD and vinyl) plummeted by 25.8 percent when compared with the first half of 2017.

If that percentage decline holds for the full year, and there’s every indication it will, annual U.S. album sales in 2018 will end up at half the size of what they were as recently as 2015. To put it more plainly, U.S. consumers will spend around half a billion dollars less on albums this year than they did in 2017...…..(many more paragraphs follow)-

(read entire article which was also published in Billboard)

[Limelight 4,697]

No, she's over

[expandableclitoris 9,087]

[annedauphine 34,556]

She could, but would she lol

 

I may be biased

Dude I like you but no shit, there isn't a single Lana thing has ever done in her entire existence that you dislike

[slang 1,509]

I followed the link (in OP), but I don't know if I read the whole article.

 

As usual, a confusing article from RS. All I see is that fixed collections of songs, termed albums, is going down from year to year, indicating that people are electing to stream more on demand (on the assumption the interest in music hasn't waned). The article's one figure should have had a third column to reflect pure streaming revenue to show this, but RS or RIAA just can't be bothered with thoughtfulness when it comes to clarifying their position. Also, if artists who sell the most "albums" (e.g. Drake) do decide to become track oriented instead of album oriented, album sales (fixed collection of song sales) must go down, even while not affecting album-oriented artists (e.g. LDR). We all know that LDR can do both kinds of orientation (and I wish she would, given her unreleased catalog).

 

Finally the album concept, even if it's not a "concept" album per se (or some other kind of large-timescale work), is just the idea that you're buying a collection of songs from the same recording session (or composing period) for less than what you would pay for the tracks individually, which is something, I as a consumer, would not like to go away. I suspect artists are going to appreciate this, or they will appreciate that whether or not they do the "album thing" is going to be another facet that determines which people (and how many) buy their stuff.

[bored 7,832]

I think the album is in jeapordy for only for artists of a certain genre...

 

Hip Hop / Rap has no worry - I mean Drake and Eminem are examples of artists who have dropped multiple albums in one year.

 

Rihanna and Beyonce are also good examples of females who are "bringing back" the album - see ANTi, Beyonce and Lemonade.

 

There's still a desire for a full length project from many fans.

 

In terms of pop or alternate pop - artists like Lana and Lorde are prime examples of why an album is still necessary. They don't rely on singles or chart success, instead they depend on album sales and their fanbases support this and want bodies of work.

[trayertrash 7,210]

Metal fans are scientifically more loyal to their favorite artists and buy more albums per year than fans of all other genres (excluding possible rock, but rock and metal are always thrown in together) Though certain pop/rap/country acts may sell more per year than metal acts, metal sells more and is streamed more than any other genre. To think that Lana or any singular artist will keep the album industry alive and not the metal community is hilarious. Metal's been keeping the industry alive for the past 30 years. 

~blah blah blah something about a shit ton of metal albums requiring full listens because concept albums are a huge part of the genre and I've never known a metal fan to not listen to full albums or to just  buy singles, where with pop it's normal to only listen to and buy singles. 

[Kurac na Biciklu 2,359]

I think I am too blond to answer to this question...

[Terrence Loves Me 71,607]

albums will never go out of style

[Mind Melt 10,090]

no people still need/love albums just nobody is actually paying for them

[graham4anything 2,859]

but should everyone work for free while others steal their work?

 

Should Drake and Eminem and all the Metal Groups work for free?

As touring is their big money.

 

Should merchandise also be given away free then? (and not just those free goody bags at awards, premieres, etc.

 

now Drake & Eminem don't need money they are now accustomed to a lifestyle (see:Elton John) and living without that lifestyle, (and Drake is not as old as Elton)

so Drake has to live for many years in the lifestyle he is accustomed to

 

Should the guy who drives the bus or provides security etc work for free? Why would they. It is only a job for them.

to paraphrase Kristofferson "Free is just another word for nothing left to lose"

 

So by going the streaming route, in a way it is career suicide

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@slang-

the country music industry/market is one to study over the years from pre-class of 1989 to post 90s and the new streaming method

Country industry is ignoring the 50 weeks that Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line have been #1 and going with the airplay only charts

and still putting the women & minorities at a major disadvantage.

 

The country artists that are becoming most popular now are ones that are in playlists online, where people don't know if they are white or black or

male or female,

HOWEVER- nor though, are they being named, so people don't necessary know who to later on listen to. It's throwaway

 

and country threw out all of the pre-1990s artists when the change came in, telling them no airplay nor label touring support.

Most groups folded as they couldn't afford it (nor would many places take a chance on an artist that has no radio or record company support).

Some later on get "sponsored" by a superstar (like Willie Nelson had done for him, and he reciprocated, or John Anderson, etc.

Or prior headliners get forced to be fifth on a bill, getting 3 songs to an audience who doesn't know them

 

That of course doesn't also take in the abuse of women that is known now, and how they were expected to "...……."  to the DJs and Promotors

and heads of labels (most of which were/are male dominated) and even female execs were expected to do the same.)

 

From what I know even metal were (perhaps are) solely reliant on Sharon Osbourne for letting them play the big tours over the years 

(which of course did help many for the future).

 

But it all boils down to- 

will artists in the future play for free? record for free? 

 

and for this thread- it is not about an artist needing to sell 5 million (or even 1 million)

It is about the album itself.

 

I doubt studio musicians (the boys /players) would work for nothing. (which is why they are union members isn't it?) Life would get in the way.

Ask the 99.999% who recorded one record over the years and had to get a real job. They obviously didn't. (same with actors, writers, playwrights etc.)

[slang 1,509]

@slang ing me doesn't seem to notify me, boo hoo. Anyway...

 

Is it [streams?] free though? It kind of depends on the artist. So this anonymous artist reported their spotify
royalties:

 

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/05/26/band-1-million-spotify-streams-royalties/

 

LDR is probably approaching 1B streams, which is a 1000x these guys. Do the math. I mean even if she gets a tenth of what these guys get per stream (and why should she be different from they?), she'd be doing pretty good given the expenditure required for her to get 1B streams. Yeah she needed the talent and needed to develop it, but once that's there/been done, and the initial effort recording things occurred, streams were effortless. At the end of the day, I'd just like a comparison of artist benefit from streams vs. artist benefit from physical album sales (hard physicals and digitals). Rather than a simple declining trend for album sales, which is not really clear as an indication of expenditure on music, or how much artists are being ripped off.

 

I don't think the fact that there is a preference for track consumption via streaming (on demand) means anything with regards to an artist's inclination to create an "album". If they actually have the inclination to do so, they will take advantage of the two distribution methods as they co-exist fine, although not every artist will bother creating hard physicals, given production costs and the fact CDs and Vynils from record companies (but not downloaded digital copies) are legal to sell used (with neither artist nor record company benefiting). Yet they still make hard physicals for some reason, which is surprising, but also speaks to the staying power of that medium.

 

Finally, streaming doesn't preclude the idea of buying an album (either physical or digital) from an artist, just to be a patron of the arts wrt that artist and/or have more convenient access to the artist. I do that all the time, but because I can stream an artist that might be interesting (or impulse buy a used cd), I'm a lot more selective about who I buy new albums from.

[graham4anything 2,859]

Lana Del Rey creates OPERAS. Song Cycles.

Beginning Middle End

(which is why there should not be bonus hits as they have nothing to do with the story).

 

it is not just happenstance of what is written then (as proven as some of the songs were written long ago, and come back belonging in this particular song cycle opera.

 

Lust for Life was in a way 2 halves divided into one whole.

 

Can anyone say and believe it that "Ride" is anything but 100% Lana (the full version monologue and epilogue) and the video (that was much like Roy Orbinson's "A love so beautiful" with the producer of Johnny Cash's "Hurt" and America album sets.

[Charlottexseax 7,605]

Lana Del Rey creates OPERAS. Song Cycles.

 

Operas? girl have you ever even seen opera? As much as Lana has potential, she's nowhere near making Traviatas, Aidas or Bohemes... doing a concept album doesn't mean you're making a musical/opera, it just means you're making a concept album. operas and musicals have themes, leitmotifs, characters. They are whole stories.