Singles vs. albums
My day job as an interaction designer involves a lot of user research. I recently did a project for an online music distribution service where I talked to a bunch of "music junkies" in the SF Bay Area about the way they listen. I was surprised to find that most of my participants (all btwn 18 and 35) were still pretty album-focused - even though they're mostly listening on computers or iPods, where other sorting methods (artist, genre, playlist) are easily accessible. It's a listening paradigm that's deeply entrenched in popular culture.
As a musician, that kinda bums me out. I mostly work solo. I'm something of a perfectionist about my songwriting, recording, and production. I have a day job, hobbies, and an active social life. An album takes me a really fucking long time to finish.
My buddy Aki says I should just throw tracks up online as I get them finished and not worry about it. Music isn't going to be a full-time job for me; it's not like I have the time or physical stamina to tour. If I want to press CDs at some point, I could just do it when I have enough singles completed.
I can't rationally refute his argument. I'm showing my age, I guess. I subscribe to the album paradigm. I have a romanticized view of physical media - 7", 12", CD - even though I buy all of my music digitally. Posting online singles just feels like cheating, somehow.
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