Its exactly what we saw with the rise of Spotify and the like… but worse because it is so dependent on in-house productions (so Netflix?)
For the AAA games? it doesn’t matter. They can get special deals (see Rockstar and Activision on Steam) or they just don’t have to care because people will play hundreds of hours of their game regardless. And for the A/B games? It is actually still a great deal because it drastically increases discoverability, early on, where “Well, I always fucking hated Shenmue but apparently people like these Yakuzas? Might as well give it a go for free”.
But it fundamentally changes the medium. It is incredibly rare to see an Album anymore because people don’t listen to music as albums. They listen to them as singles in a playlist. Its why there is no real point in deciding whether something should be a film or a tv series because you can just release it as a four part miniseries or stretch things out for a full eight and so forth.
And we are rapidly seeing that come out of MS. They bought so many dream team studios that were known for making AMAZING crafted SP games (Obsidian et al) and a variety of technically excellent games (iD) or money makers (Bethesda). But none of those map well to a system where there is little point in sticking to a single game and… monetary incentives towards short and sweet games.
I forget if it came before or after Sony made PS+ another one, but the biggest mistake was day and date for all major MS releases on gamepass. Provide discounts and get the “patient gamers” but don’t put Indiana Jones on the subscription service the day it releases. It is just killing Q1 sales. And… once you do it, you can never undo it.
I don’t really have my finger on the pulse of most of this, so I don’t have anything to add to everything you said. But I am curious about your statement regarding albums:
It is incredibly rare to see an Album anymore because people don’t listen to music as albums. They listen to them as singles in a playlist.
What genre are you listening to, where artists used to come out with albums but aren’t anymore? As a listener of all kinds of music, like rock, metal, blues, kpop, reggaeton, EDM, country and many other genres, that has not been my experience at all.
Music is released in album format in the sense of being a playlist that might get sold as a vinyl at a show. It is incredibly rare to be released as a curated listening experience. The idea that you listen to the music, in album order, and have a story told to you. One of love and loss or of making it past an infidelity or of murdering your brother in the hopes of waking up a subjugated populace and so forth.
Plenty of musicians have talked about it and it is a very common talking point on the music side of things. I think Hayley Williams’s shadow dropped album (that was part of a hair product line or something?) is being widely praised as an Album? I dunno, I love her but I’ve been too busy to sit down and listen. Which… is also a big part of the problem.
I really can’t see where you’re coming from. I’m discovering and listening to loads of new albums every couple of months. Spotify is even pushing albums with their “pre-save” feature, where artists start a countdown for their album that’s about to drop, and you ‘pre-save’ it to your library, so you get a notification and have instant access, once the album drops.
Your specific point about Hayley Williams also doesn’t make sense to me. I haven’t listened to much of her music, since it wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I have family members who love her music, and look forward to every album of hers.
I agree that singles are more important than ever in a marketing sense, and that there are probably some artists that focus more on putting those out, than creating albums. But to say that albums are incredible rare is just straight up untrue in my experience. Plenty of artists are still making thematic albums and/or albums that tell a story.
I think you still very much don’t understand the distinction between a music set (an “album”) and a curated set of songs to tell a story (an “Album”).
There are a LOT of things to complain about but frigging Beyonce talked about this… a decade or so ago. And plenty of other musicians and “music industry” people have made the same sentiments.
Are there still some Albums? Of course. But they are a tiny fraction of what is actually created for reasons very much tied towards streaming music services, attention spans, and so forth.
So you can either continue to not be able to see how this is a statement and continue arguing against it. Or you can actually do some googling and look at this as a greater discussion point. Up to you.
And to people wondering why online discourse is dead and it is increasingly hard to distinguish AI slop from actual human beings: A single supporting argument/reference to an industry that has gone through the exact same mess we are triggered a massive derail as people insist that, because they themselves haven’t experienced a pretty major talking point, it can’t possibly exist.
Me not agreeing with you is not arguing against you. I’m only talking from my own experience, and not insisting that what I’m experiencing is the absolute objective truth. At no point did I say you were wrong or that what you’re saying doesn’t exist. Just that I can’t make sense of your viewpoint. Anyway, this is it for me. Have a good one.
It is incredibly rare to see an Album anymore because people don’t listen to music as albums.
…what? This claim is so incredibly wrong, it slants your entire comment. Artists as small as you can get to those as big as Swift are still releasing albums. Just because you don’t interact with them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Agreed. From reading OPs replies to my questions, it seems they have different definitions for “albums” and “Albums”. But as their claim slanted their entire comment for you, I would also say that our whole exchange sets the rest of their comment in a different light for me.
Its why there is no real point in deciding whether something should be a film or a tv series because you can just release it as a four part miniseries or stretch things out for a full eight and so forth.
There absolutely is. A movie is still expected to be watched in one go in its entirety and so is an episode of a mini series. It has a huge effects on the pacing of the media and how you segment episodes of one.
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Its exactly what we saw with the rise of Spotify and the like… but worse because it is so dependent on in-house productions (so Netflix?)
For the AAA games? it doesn’t matter. They can get special deals (see Rockstar and Activision on Steam) or they just don’t have to care because people will play hundreds of hours of their game regardless. And for the A/B games? It is actually still a great deal because it drastically increases discoverability, early on, where “Well, I always fucking hated Shenmue but apparently people like these Yakuzas? Might as well give it a go for free”.
But it fundamentally changes the medium. It is incredibly rare to see an Album anymore because people don’t listen to music as albums. They listen to them as singles in a playlist. Its why there is no real point in deciding whether something should be a film or a tv series because you can just release it as a four part miniseries or stretch things out for a full eight and so forth.
And we are rapidly seeing that come out of MS. They bought so many dream team studios that were known for making AMAZING crafted SP games (Obsidian et al) and a variety of technically excellent games (iD) or money makers (Bethesda). But none of those map well to a system where there is little point in sticking to a single game and… monetary incentives towards short and sweet games.
I forget if it came before or after Sony made PS+ another one, but the biggest mistake was day and date for all major MS releases on gamepass. Provide discounts and get the “patient gamers” but don’t put Indiana Jones on the subscription service the day it releases. It is just killing Q1 sales. And… once you do it, you can never undo it.
I don’t really have my finger on the pulse of most of this, so I don’t have anything to add to everything you said. But I am curious about your statement regarding albums:
What genre are you listening to, where artists used to come out with albums but aren’t anymore? As a listener of all kinds of music, like rock, metal, blues, kpop, reggaeton, EDM, country and many other genres, that has not been my experience at all.
Music is released in album format in the sense of being a playlist that might get sold as a vinyl at a show. It is incredibly rare to be released as a curated listening experience. The idea that you listen to the music, in album order, and have a story told to you. One of love and loss or of making it past an infidelity or of murdering your brother in the hopes of waking up a subjugated populace and so forth.
Plenty of musicians have talked about it and it is a very common talking point on the music side of things. I think Hayley Williams’s shadow dropped album (that was part of a hair product line or something?) is being widely praised as an Album? I dunno, I love her but I’ve been too busy to sit down and listen. Which… is also a big part of the problem.
I really can’t see where you’re coming from. I’m discovering and listening to loads of new albums every couple of months. Spotify is even pushing albums with their “pre-save” feature, where artists start a countdown for their album that’s about to drop, and you ‘pre-save’ it to your library, so you get a notification and have instant access, once the album drops.
Your specific point about Hayley Williams also doesn’t make sense to me. I haven’t listened to much of her music, since it wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I have family members who love her music, and look forward to every album of hers.
I agree that singles are more important than ever in a marketing sense, and that there are probably some artists that focus more on putting those out, than creating albums. But to say that albums are incredible rare is just straight up untrue in my experience. Plenty of artists are still making thematic albums and/or albums that tell a story.
I think you still very much don’t understand the distinction between a music set (an “album”) and a curated set of songs to tell a story (an “Album”).
There are a LOT of things to complain about but frigging Beyonce talked about this… a decade or so ago. And plenty of other musicians and “music industry” people have made the same sentiments.
Are there still some Albums? Of course. But they are a tiny fraction of what is actually created for reasons very much tied towards streaming music services, attention spans, and so forth.
So you can either continue to not be able to see how this is a statement and continue arguing against it. Or you can actually do some googling and look at this as a greater discussion point. Up to you.
And to people wondering why online discourse is dead and it is increasingly hard to distinguish AI slop from actual human beings: A single supporting argument/reference to an industry that has gone through the exact same mess we are triggered a massive derail as people insist that, because they themselves haven’t experienced a pretty major talking point, it can’t possibly exist.
Oy
Me not agreeing with you is not arguing against you. I’m only talking from my own experience, and not insisting that what I’m experiencing is the absolute objective truth. At no point did I say you were wrong or that what you’re saying doesn’t exist. Just that I can’t make sense of your viewpoint. Anyway, this is it for me. Have a good one.
EDIT: Punctuation.
…what? This claim is so incredibly wrong, it slants your entire comment. Artists as small as you can get to those as big as Swift are still releasing albums. Just because you don’t interact with them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Agreed. From reading OPs replies to my questions, it seems they have different definitions for “albums” and “Albums”. But as their claim slanted their entire comment for you, I would also say that our whole exchange sets the rest of their comment in a different light for me.
There absolutely is. A movie is still expected to be watched in one go in its entirety and so is an episode of a mini series. It has a huge effects on the pacing of the media and how you segment episodes of one.
People have been calling albums ‘dead’ since radio, since MTV, since iTunes, and yet the vast majority of artists still release albums.