Something I said on ILM yesterday.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Which nobody addressed - the thread was moving fast and this was a tangent.

I can think of two long-term marketing triumphs for the record industry. The former possibly accidental (but probably not), the latter definitely on purpose. First is the promotion of the album as a format and the repackaging of popular music as non-disposable. Second (linked to the first) is the promotion and success of the CD format as a way to buy old music as well as new.

It's the level of accident I'm interested in really. The move to album format, the move away from disposability - when did these happen (I know that in the UK 1969 was the year album sales overtook single sales), and how proactive or reactive were the record labels in this?

Comments

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

My hunch is that the triumph of the alBUM as the premier format happened earlier than the move away from disposability.

There are many, many, many more long-forgotten LPs from the 60s and 70s than it's possible for the mind to comfortably accommodate. Tens of thousands of the buggers.

Key moments in repackaging for better or for worse might have happened in the mid-70s, viz:

- release of Beatles' 'red' and 'blue' comps (1973)

- the first greatest hits sets by Elton John (1974) and The Eagles (1976) becoming huge sellers, both sets far outstripping the sales of any of these two acts' previous LPs.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Erm, my point here is:

- pre-76, 'level of accident' = quite high
- 1976 onwards, 'level of accident' = considerably less, I think

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, the album's been around, and selling, for ages. Album as a unitary work - Sinatra's reprise records did really well didn't they? And musical soundtracks - which are unitary works if anything is! - dominate the early 60s chart.

So the social/artistic brainiacs Frank is talking about pick up on the format and decide to start using it and filling it properly.

And then the record labels cement the deal with compilations etc.

But the shift to non-disposability MUST be happening earlier, because as Frank says the album is a more expensive format - there's got to be a commitment to spending more disposable income on music for it to spread from the (presumably older) Sinatra and musicals buyers.

Non-disposability is a really fascinating issue for me - at what point did "It Will Stand" stop being rhetoric and start being reality - I'm sure I've read interviews with most of the big 60s players where they've said, yeah, we assumed it would be 3 years at the top and that was that.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

What about the jazzers in the 50s? e.g. Kind of Blue? Didn't generally release singles, so it was LP as complete artistic statement, whether live or studio.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Not sure affordability of product and non-disposability of content are linked to any great extent.

See also Frank's post at 4:59 below, which I agree with.