Albums are Alive and Kicking - Spotify

Albums are alive and kicking in the streaming age, Spotify has claimed.

16:50 15 October 2018

The music industry has evolved significantly since the first ever album was released in 1948. Since then, the format has taken on various shapes and sizes, as fans listen to music in different ways.

 

Although recent figures suggest that sales of albums have dropped by as much as 50per cent, Spotify says that the album is “alive and kicking” in the streaming age.

 

As the UK's first National Album Day celebrates "all aspects of the album", Spotify UK's head of shows and editorial says an album release in 2018 "can still be absolutely monumental".

 

"You only have to look at some of the records that have been broken on Spotify in the last year or two with things like Drake's Scorpion, Post Malone, Ed Sheeran or Stormzy's albums in 2017 to see you can have very big moment across streaming and traditional media," suggests Austin Daboh.

 

"People will always look at a collection of songs as a moment, a landmark, a flag in the sand for an artist's career."

 

He added: "Last week on Spotify we had five million streams on albums.

 

"Compare that to the height of the digital era, the height of the iTunes era, nobody sold five million albums in a calendar year let alone a week.

 

"Also, 46% of all streams on Spotify aren't singles. These are songs that are coming through projects whether that be albums, EPs or playlists.

 

"The album is very much alive and kicking on Spotify."