I think they just want more money...

I’ve been thinking for a little while about an article that I saw on CNN.com some time back. The article was discussing how some artists are resisting selling their songs on popular internet music sources like iTunes. The reason cited by many of the artists was that they didn’t like the idea that people could download and listen to individual tracks from their albums without hearing the track in the context of the full album.

When I initially read that, I was perplexed. I mean, albums were all in vogue during the 60’s and 70’s, but what is so special about an album that warrants that much appreciation? I have spent the better part of the last week listening to dozens of CD’s that I own, and came to the realization that if there is something special about an album that is more than simply a collection of songs, then I’m not getting it.

On any given CD, I could have altered the ordering of tracks randomly and would not have owned an appreciably different CD. It isn’t like the tracks tell a story when in the right order. Frequently, they vary from song to song wildly in tone, tempo, and topic. So what’s the big deal about listening to them in context to each other?