Songs or Albums?

[DiMono]

Man, how do I write this so it doesn't look like a dumb vs thread?

Right now I'm really into the Ayreon album The Human Equation. The album has a cohesive narrative running through it that ties it all together, and as a whole it makes much more sense to listen to the songs in order than to put them on shuffle. Basically, the album is a unit meant to be taken in all at once.

However, at the end of disc 1 is a song called Love which is simply spectacular. The entire album is awesome, but Love alone is worth the price of admission.

So my question is this: when you buy an album, are you buying it as a single piece, or are you buying a collection of songs? Will you buy an entire album based on the strength of a single song? Will you buy an album but then only listen to a handful of songs from it? Basically, how do you buy and listen to your music?

 

[theComposer]

I usually don't buy albums. My taste in music is kind of eclectic, usually to the point that I like about 2-5 songs from an album, but just can't get in to the rest of it, so it's more economical for me to buy just the songs I like rather than an entire album.

 

[TeeBs]

It depends on the album
Best Hits - Songs
Concept Albums - Albums
Anything else - Both.

 

[strum4h]

Well sometimes the entire album itself is set up to be like a journey. Where songs transition into one another and the entire thing has a crescendo bigger than the songs themselves. I buy whole albums because usually I discover songs I did not know I would like.

 

[Polaris19]

Great songs make amazing albums.

You can have a great song without a great album, but a great album requires several incredible song. There are highs and lows of an album but it does need good songs to make it what it is.

I prefer albums most of the time. It's cool to listen to a theme or concept the whole way through. OR simply just listen to a great collection of music.

 

[Mr Scott]

Depends. What you purchased is called a to first to last "Concept Album" which is generally listened to first to last track in order. However this is not necessary, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" is from the album "The Wall" but it does stand on its own as a single.

Many of my favorite artists have released concept albums: "Pink Floyd", "King Diamond", and "The Dear Hunter." However many of their albums do have songs that stand on their own, which are released as singles. I hope I helped your understanding of the music industry.

 

[high_castle]

Mostly I buy songs. My tastes are varied and just because I like one song by Martin Sexton doesn't mean I care for the rest of his catalog. On the other hand, there are albums like Midlakes' The Trials of Van Occupanther which is meant to be enjoyed as a whole. So I have the whole album (although the standout track is definitely "Roscoe").

 

[elvor0]

Albums really, the genres of music I listen to aint really big on singles the same way mainstream music is, I know they exist, but it's really more album orientated in the Metal world.

 

[manythings]

Currently iTunesing right now for individual songs. Long and short of it, I am getting 5 free tracks a week so I am looking up albums I want, finding the tracks on youtube and deciding if I want the album. If not I take the tracks I want most and leaving it, if I do well the overall album is now cheaper.

More OT: Depends, sometimes guys make one sone I like and the rest of the album just isn't anything I am interested in. E.G. Cage the Elephant have the track Ain't no Rest for the wicked (anyone who has played borderlands knows it) but after hearing more of their stuff I am just not interested in the album, Gorillaz and plastic beach on the other hand are soon to be purchased.

Bullet; Depends on the band.

 

[Julianking93]

I personally get albums rather than songs for the main reason of; if I like one song off it, I'm bound to like at least one other that I haven't heard before.

So yes, I get full albums as I've yet to hear one full CD that only had 1 song on it I liked.

 

[Something Amyss]

I generally buy based on the strength of the songs, but not to the point I would buy for one or two songs.

I love full albums as a piece, but a lot of them are not.

 

[dibblywibbles]

it's pretty simple for me. I'm an album listener. Honestly, a band is no good if they can't release an album you can't listen to all the way through. an album should be a judge of a bands worth. I would never buy an album based off of one song and the album has to be listened to all the way through.

 

[Jharry5]

It's usually albums I listen to, especially if there's a concept/theme that runs throughout the whole CD. Two of my favourite albums (Kezia by Protest the Hero & Grey Britain by Gallows, if you were interested) have a concept or theme that runs through each of them. Due to this, I can't listen to one song on shuffle or whatever. It has to be the full album, otherwise you just don't get the full experience, in my opinion.
However, there are bands that I prefer to listen to single songs. It all depends on the band or album really.

 

[BonsaiK]

Man, how do I write this so it doesn't look like a dumb vs thread?

Right now I'm really into the Ayreon album The Human Equation. The album has a cohesive narrative running through it that ties it all together, and as a whole it makes much more sense to listen to the songs in order than to put them on shuffle. Basically, the album is a unit meant to be taken in all at once.

However, at the end of disc 1 is a song called Love which is simply spectacular. The entire album is awesome, but Love alone is worth the price of admission.

So my question is this: when you buy an album, are you buying it as a single piece, or are you buying a collection of songs? Will you buy an entire album based on the strength of a single song? Will you buy an album but then only listen to a handful of songs from it? Basically, how do you buy and listen to your music?

Most of my music gets given to me, usually without my approval or prior knowledge, so it's rare that I have to buy music. In the rare cases that I buy something here's how I look at it - I look at the length of the album, the amount of songs I like on it (or that I'm likely to like on it), and the price. I'll pay $30 for one song if I think that song is totally amazing, but I won't pay $0.05 for 70 minutes of what I think is mediocre. However a lower price might mean I am more willing to take a punt on something that might be mediocre, but might not, whereas if I'm paying a premium I better damn well know in advance that it's going to kick ass.

If it's an album with a very consistent sound throughout, I may be buying the album as one "sound unit" or whatever, but even story-based or concept albums, or albums which are all just one big long track still have high and low points within them, so my brain will still divide it up into "slices of time that are worth the money" vs "slices of time that are not worth the money".

I'll listen to an album all the way through if it's consistently good, but if some tracks annoy me I'll skip them. On the other hand if there's only one good song I'll jsut listen to that song.

 

[MrNickster]

I buy physical copies of albums. If I like one song on it, chances are I'll like the others.

 

[Queen Michael]

Whenever I buy a new album, I do it for all the songs on it, usually without having heard a single one before. I trust that the artists I like won't disappoint me.

 

[DiMono]

Depends. What you purchased is called a to first to last "Concept Album" which is generally listened to first to last track in order. However this is not necessary, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" is from the album "The Wall" but it does stand on its own as a single.

Many of my favorite artists have released concept albums: "Pink Floyd", "King Diamond", and "The Dear Hunter." However many of their albums do have songs that stand on their own, which are released as singles. I hope I helped your understanding of the music industry.

Condescension aside, all you've really done is state the obvious. All bands need to release singles from their albums in order to get people listening, and they tend to choose the best songs from the album as their singles because it's better to put your best foot forward. Further, each song needs to be able to stand on its own, because that's how songs work. This is just plain logic. There are comments that could reasonably be made in this thread that would be informative on the music industry, but I'm afraid yours were not them.


OT: Another album I like listening to as a whole is Sixx AM's The Heroin Diaries. I don't think there's a single mediocre song on it, which is especially impressive when you know it was basically done as an afterthought to help promote Nikki Sixx's book by the same name (which I have yet to read, but it's around here somewhere). Basically, each song represents one month on the way from addiction through rehab to recovery, from a first person perspective. It's really something to listen to, I recommend it.

 

[Bucht]

Depends on what album it is, most of the time it's a collection of some good and some less good songs and sometimes it's a masterpiece.
But those masterpieces are hard to find, they're gems worth searching for, there's nothing better in life than music.

 

[Rob Shogun]

It usually depends on how much I like or enjoy the music by the artist although saying that, I have ended up buying a cd on a whim of "The name sounds good and the album artwork is interesting and its quite cheap" its how I started listening to High On Fire

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

It depends. For example, Crack The Skye by Mastodon has Divinations and Oblivion on it, which justify buying the album in the fist place, but as a whole the album is breathtakingly awesome. I would probably just buy any album as a whole. If I hear a track from it that's great there might be other tracks that are great too.