You all know the story. The physical album as we know it is fading away, becoming an item of the 90's that will soon be found in huge boxes, selling at a £1 a piece at your local weekenders boot sales.
Let's move on.
Major artists that used to be driven by the umbrella of their major labels blatantly stayed under their contracts for so long just for the their huge marketing budgets and the promise of massive international exposure. These artists are now realizing that with a substantial fan base and a well enough known brand name they can start leading their own artistic careers. I am not saying they will managed completely alone, you still need a proper manager and a team. But just by keeping a close relationship with their fans, allows them to directly distribute new music without all the intermediate major label tick lists of things to do next.
I have a sense that the average music listener's ear is getting in the habit of hearing longer songs. The 3:00 minute TV/radio format single as we know it is changing into longer 7:00 compositions. Dance and electronic music genres are good examples but also Alternative and Rock are letting aside the compressed regimented song structures leaving themselves room for more progressive and developed spaced out songs.
Now with the different platforms available to each and any one of us like Podcast, blogs and video streaming we are free to send out our musical message openly, good or bad, inspired or not, anyone has the control.
So "jam" on fellow music friends. Let the music spread. Not only on toast.
