Recently I was listening to a podcast in which Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Entertainment was talking about the music industry and album sales. He touched on the idea of “buying songs vs. buying artists.”

When you go to the record store (wait, what’s that?  I thought those were mythical places that people only dreamed of) or iTunes, what music are you buying?  Are you buying the stuff that you’ve loved your entire life, or songs that you have heard ten times a day for the last three weeks?  Are you getting the Top 40, or are you getting the latest stuff that nobody else has heard of?  Do you buy music for the content and what the artist stands for, or do you buy it because it’s the coolest new thing?

A Look at the Numbers

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) posts some key information on their website.  This is important when considering trends in the music industry because it helps show how different mediums or formats are doing in their respective sales.  According to the RIAA:

CD singles have decreased by 12.5% ($3,500,000 to $3,100,000) from 2008 to 2009, while digital download purchases increased by 20.2% ($1,032,200,000 to $1,220,300,000).

Full-length album sales for CDs decreased 21.9% ($5,471,300,000 to $4,274,100,000), while digital download purchases increased 18.2% ($635,300,000 to $763,400,000).

What does this mean?  It means that more people are buying digital formats over physical CDs.  As for overall sales, physical CDs are bought in full-length albums more often than singles, while digital downloads are more often single songs than full-length albums.  Physical CD full-length album sales still make up the majority of sales in the industry from a dollar standpoint.  I’m not going to get into it in this post, but there are many factors that impact these sales numbers.  When you’re comparing physical goods to digital goods, you really need to take into consideration manufacturing, shipping, and general overhead costs.  You don’t have nearly as much costs involved with a digital product.  Again, that is another post for another time!

Buying Songs

So, what exactly does “buying songs” mean?  To start, we need to realize that it’s how people perceive the music they listen to.  Is it a commodity like a bottle of soda, or is it a piece of art like a painting?  Let’s try to be objective while defining this:
If you listen to the radio, and especially Top 40, you’re being sold on songs.  Not artists.  The record labels do their research on various demographics and attempt to create an artist and sound that will appeal to that market.  Instead of letting the people choose by way of calling in to radio stations, buying tickets to shows, and showing their support, the labels are increasingly packaging artists to look, act, and sound a certain way.  Then they are marketed to a particular audience and pumped up on the radio stations.  When a 14-year old girl hears the same song over and over on the radio, she makes the assumption that it must be good if it’s being played so much.  People must be calling in to request it, right?  So what does she do?  She calls in and requests it.  Downloads it on iTunes.  And repeats the process with the next song.  She doesn’t buy the full album because she could care less about the other songs on the album.  The rest of the album isn’t being played on the radio.  That one song is.  And that’s what she wants.  Just like that pair of shoes or some McDonald’s.

People who buy songs listen to the radio.

How, then, does this impact the sales for an artist? For an artist on a major label, chances are his or her singles are being purchased much more than his or her full album.  The musician is not making money because the kids are only buying one song at 99 cents (most of which goes to the label, management, producer, etc).  The label gives the group tour support so that the artist can make a couple bucks doing shows, though.  So the musician goes out on the road to support his or her album, most of which a lot of people probably haven’t even heard because they only bought the single.  It seems as though buying singles wouldn’t be as beneficial to the artist as buying an entire album.  Or better yet, going to his or her show and buying the full album.

Buying Artists

People that buy artists are supporting them.  They show that they enjoy the art that these musicians are creating.  By purchasing full albums, we get to experience the full intentions of that artist.  Many albums are written that have a dynamic flow to them from song to song.  I’m all for buying a single of a new group if you’re not quite sure whether or not you like them.  But if you’ve heard the group before and like them, why not buy the full album?  You often get a discount, especially when you go and get the digital format.  On iTunes, single releases range from $0.99 cents to $1.29.  For instance, Timbaland has an album on iTunes.  ”Shock Value II” is 17 tracks (There’s also a 13 track album by the same name).  Each track individually costs $1.29, bringing the total of all songs on his album to $21.93.  But, if you purchase the full album, all at one time, digitally, you’re looking at $12.99 on iTunes.  That’s a savings of $8.94, or almost 41%!  It only makes financial sense to buy the whole album in that case.  Additionally, you as the listener become exposed to more of the artist’s creativity, hearing things you may very well appreciate even more than the single you heard on the radio.

So, what about fan loyalty?  How does that compare with the current Top 40?  If I show you that it’s on the top of the charts, then it must be good, right? Seriously, though.  Take 10 songs from the top 40 and pull them out.  Pretend with me for a second that these were artists you’d never heard of.  Strip away the large marketing budget.  Disable the Autotune on the vocals.  In many cases, the opinion of the general public would probably change.  (But now we’re getting into reasons why artists are artists, and that’s an entirely separate blog.)

Now, take your favorite band that is playing in your home town this weekend.  They work 9-5′s, practice in the evenings, and drive themselves to their shows every weekend.  They are truly talented musicians writing great music that really connects with their fans.  Why aren’t they in the Top 40?  Because the labels have determined that you won’t like them.  Or more accurately, they’ve determined that the 14 year-old girl who will buy the music won’t like them.  And by “determined,” I mean, “we have had our decision made for us.” And those decisions aren’t always based on quality of music as much as profit potential (again, an entirely separate blog).

Conclusion

So, is it better as an artist to push your singles, or your full album?   That depends, really.  It depends on how the pay structure is broken down, who you have to pay before you get paid, whether your fans are more likely to buy singles or albums, and a whole lot more.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is how iTunes works.  For example, Apple will not let you sell your album in its iTunes store unless you make each of the individual tracks available for single sale.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Did you realize that there are artists who don’t release their albums on iTunes or break them down into single tracks?  Kid Rock, AC/DC, The Beatles, Tool, Jay-Z, and more have not released their albums on iTunes.  The usual reason for not selling their music on iTunes? They want their album sold as one piece of work to represent their musical creativity, not split into many fractions.  As a musician, I completely appreciate where they’re coming from.  Tool’s latest release, “10,000 Days” is a perfect example of the previous statement.  After listening to that album I realized very quickly that they had written the entire album with each song in mind.  In an interview between Guitar World and Tool guitarist Adam Jones, they talk about the full album in this way:

“[The songs] start in one place, go somewhere else, and end in a completely different place altogether. It’s as if the songs are telling a story in a linear fashion.”

Think for a moment about the last time you heard a song on the radio, in a friend’s car, or in a restaurant.  A song you’d never heard before.  Perhaps you found out who that artist was and found them for sale online, only to realize that you had to buy the full album in order to get that one song that you’d heard.

Now, say you went on over to iTunes and found that same album for sale digitally.  But you also had the option to purchase the one song that you’d heard.  You buy it for 99 cents (or $1.29) and listen to it for a few days.  Then you go back to iTunes and buy the whole album because you liked that single so much.

Obviously it varies from person to person and artist to artist, but I do believe that it is a good thing to purchase singles and then go back and get the entire album. There are many positive benefits to buying full albums from the beginning. You become an invested fan; you almost feel a sense of  ownership in that artist’s creative output.  I’d say that the tendency to really hear the artist’s music increases when you’re listening to the other songs on the album, when you’re critiquing their work.  But what if you buy a full album and you’re sorely disappointed?  Well, first of all, you probably wouldn’t have bought the album if you hadn’t heard at least one good song you liked.  Secondly, you now have a well-rounded perspective of the band and who they really are.  Plus, at least you made that judgment call yourself–you were able to base your opinion off of your own perspective. If more fans were music critics instead of radio junkies, I’d guess that our world of music, as we know it, would be drastically different.

Conclusion? Stop buying songs and instead buy artists.   Support the artists that you like.  Don’t buy music for the sake of buying music, either.  Don’t get the song because you want to have it at the next party so people think you’re cool, which leads you to create a party mix of overrated musicians just because they get played on your local Top 40 station every hour.  Critique musicians like you critique ball players or actors or politicians. Get music that you like, that connects with you.  Music that moves you and makes sense to you.  Don’t settle for less.

Thanks for reading, guys!  Let’s hear your thoughts and feedback now.