Music Industry Mulls Over Future Of Greatest Hits Album, Notes Rise Of “This Wacky MP3 Thing”
Ever since Napster, the days have been numbered for the greatest hits collection, and if it’s not an endangered species just yet, it’s existence is only to become ever more tenuous as a generation that’s never known anything but digital delivery becomes the larger part of the audience consuming music. Well, apparently labels are finally starting to realize the fading commercial viability of a super-sized collection of well-known songs in a single-serving world. On some level this is a shame; as the AP article notes, the greatest hits album as a object unto itself can often become a band’s most enjoyable (or at least iconic) release, especially for bands with a sprawling, incontinent output or ones who were always singles artists to begin with. There’s something so junk food enjoyable about unwrapping a package that you know is already pre-filled with nothing but grade-A hits.
Best-Of Albums Worst Of Choices For Some [Yahoo via AP]
