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Elyse Grossman
Professor Mary Miles
ENGL 137H Section 21
3 November 2014
The Death of the Album
You know the hit 80s song Video Killed the Radio Star well, Im producing a new
version called Internet killed the Album Unlike Buggles hit, mine wont be produced by a
record company, nor will it be compiled with 9 other possible hits, and shipped out to the public
in a rather expensive casing, in fact, the only thing that my song will have in common with
Buggles will be that it is indeed a song. But, Im getting ahead of myself. The slow and painful
death of the album is now over, and while it has truly been a Journey, I think that I speak for the
entire music-loving community when I say, that we accept this change with Open Arms. While
the album has been a long-standing paradigm in the music industry, it has finally shifted to
become a thing of the past.
Just like Ariana, the album took a while to Break Free, it wasnt quite Centuries, but
it did take a while. It all started with the mix-tape, and the idea that one could painstakingly
combine many songs from separate albums on to one tape. The mix-tape was great because it
allowed the creative freedom for one to listen to whatever mixes of songs one so desired, and it
could easily be given to friends or lovers. But the mix-tape required a ton of work, and was really
reserved as a special gift. Also, the maker of such gift, still had to own all of the albums of the
individual songs to create the mix (Felten).
Thus, when talking about the albums Stairway to Heaven, we begin with Napster. A
small peer-to-peer file-sharing network invented by two teenagers Shawn Fanning and Shawn

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Parker in 1999. Napster, in a nutshell allowed users to download any specific song or album and
listen to it for free. It worked like this: suppose Sally wants to listen to Anaconda by Niki
Minaj, but doesnt want to have to drive all of the way to the store to buy the CD and download
its contents for listening. John however, has the whole Minaj album (called The Pinkprint), but
John wants to listen to Hysteria by Def Leppard and doesnt have this album (conveniently
titled Hysteria). Steve, has Hysteria and wants a few other songs. Sally, John, and Steves
computers all communicate with the Napster server, which then grabs the individual music files
off of the respective computers and shares them with each other. In other words, Napster streams
Johns version of Anaconda on Sallys computer and Steves version of Hysteria on Johns
computer, and so on with more people. As Journalist Dan Reilly put it, it was really cool,
Unfortunately however, Napster broke basically every copyright law in the book, and was
immediately attacked by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and various
artists (including but not limited to Dr. Dre and Metallica). To make a long story short, Napster
lost just about every one of these lawsuits, and a few years later, in 2003, went bankrupt. The
point of this story however, is not the death of Napster, but rather the Jitterbug that it created in
the minds of the music listening population. This Jitterbug would spread, and eventually kill
the album for good-unlike Napster, which is now back, completely revamped (Suskind).
The life and death of Napster created a Battlefield that would change the paradigms for
organization of music forever. On one side, there was the consumer, who was now completely
infected with the Boogie Fever of free music; on the other side, was the RIAA and record
labels just trying to stop all of the Dirty Dancing to stolen music. The idea of peer-to-peer
sharing almost immediately took off, by 2001, nearly $500 million was invested in developing
the technology (Abelson). In fact, the frequency of the phrase P2P increased by a factor of 22 in

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just 9 years, from 1998 to 2007 (Jean-Baptiste). Spikes like this could only be compared to
words like selfie. Society at this time was becoming much more open source, and sharingoriented so P2P fit right in with the movement. The popularity of it all was growing way too fast
for the record companies to keep up, and when they failed to collaborate to create a legal and
profitable Internet music service, they demonized it, (Abelson). Between the years of 2003
and 2008, the RIAA filed more than 26,000 lawsuits for copyright infringement and illegally
downloaded music. The record companies, with the help of the RIAA, and other private
companies attacked this consumer revolution, suing left and right, to the point where they
became the enemy (Abelson). We could all feel it coming in the air tonight, it was the creation
of this social stigma between record companies and consumers created the perfect window for
Steve Jobs.
All of this turmoil seemed to be just the perfect kairos for the introduction of Apples
Rip, Mix, Burn campaign. A true All Star amidst the ashes, Rip, Mix, Burn quickly became a
sensation, and laid the foundation for even bigger things. The idea for the campaign came very
simply from the technical aspect of what people were doing in the wake of Napster. The public
would basically rip a CD of its digital music content, mix songs from said CD with others either
downloaded from the Internet, or from other CDs, and then burn a new CD. While this was
admittedly a ton of work for the consumer, they did what they had to do to fight the war with the
record companies (Felten). This is exactly where Apple so ingeniously places themselves.
Instead of fighting the wild popularity of Rip, Mix, Burn like most of the music industry, Apple
came out with an ad that featured it.

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rather than making the primary objective in designing the system the prevention of
copyright infringement Apple really focused on how to make the experience of the
paying customer as easy and compelling as possible (Felten)
From then on out, it was a shoe-in, Apple became the peoples company, and it was only
inevitable that iTunes would become a hit (Rip. Mix).
Finally, in 2003, the most successful online music store to date, was released. Better
known as iTunes, the store sold nearly 70 million songs in its first year, and all were sold,
completely within the legal limits of copyright laws (Taintor). The only way to really explain
how well-received and accepted iTunes was, is to let it speak for itself: According to former head
of digital at Warner Music Group, he made it (iTunes) sexy, CEO of Sony, and former head of
Universal Music Group, Doug Morris says it was all about having the right product, Jeff Price,
founder of TuneCore claims that iTunes has driven a consumption of music that is unparalleled
in the world, (Pham). In other words, the product was not only opportunistic, but it had flare,
pizzazz, and it appealed directly to the needs of the consumer. The users wanted relatively cheap,
widely accessible, and uninhibited sound, and that is exactly what they got. iTunes gave the
consumer control of their music.
Unfortunately, the power of choice and that power has suddenly made people realise
they didn't always want to have complete albums, (Ellis-Petersen). 99 cents per song is
attractive, and singles are attractive, and while it may not have been that started the fire that
killed the album; iTunes was definitely a tipping point. iTunes had us singing the praises of All
the Single Ladies and from then on, there would be no mass market for the physical album.
Who can say, if weve been changed for the better by this shift, but we can definitely
agree that we have been changed. For example, since the death of the album, just about anyone

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can make and release music now. Technology has given us the tools to create and develop our
own music without the help of a studio or a recording company, and without the need for an
album, just about anyone with very little money and some good editing software can become a
one-hit wonder-dream big (Pham).
While the Journey has been a long one, we must take Pharrells advice and remain
Happy. This paradigm has shifted, and ended an iconic piece of music history, but as a result,
new pieces have come to fruition. Shortly after iTunes, Youtube came along in 2005, and then
came Pandora, and Spotify. A new generation of internet streaming, and internet radio is in the
midst of being explored, and one could only hope for the best from this one. As for iTunes, it is
beginning a slow decline. Following a widely publicized hike in prices from 99 cents to $1.29,
the death of Steve Jobs himself, and the boom of internet radio subscriptions, Apple is facing loss
of iTunes music sales. Since January, Apple has reported a 14% loss in music purchases, and
compared to Spotifys 46% jump in sales, it does not look good for iTunes. Even though, the
company as a whole seems to be doing fairly well, they just bought Beats Electronics, and their
stocks are up- iTunes, is suffering (Karp).
In The End it is important to remember that the music industry has come a long way
since the days of the mix-tape. Many changes have occurred, and amongst them, it is important
to remember the album, and what it once was. Innovation is what sparked the paradigm shift to
end the album, and who knows what it could do in the future. Maybe one day, we will be
listening to Spotify Killed the iTunes Single by some random dude in his basement- it does
have a catchy flare to it

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Works Cited
Abelson, Harold, Ken Ledeen, and Harry R. Lewis. "Chapter 6: Balance Toppled." Blown to
Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Addison-Wesley, 2008. 195-207. Print.
Ellis-Petersen, Hannah. "Album Spins Closer Toward It's Final Track as a Viable Format." The
Guardian. N.p., 29 July 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. <http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmusic%2F2014%2Fjul%2F29%2Falbum- music-formatstreaming-playlists-extinction>.
Felten, Edward. "Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital
Media." President's Lectures. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. 2 Nov. 2014. Web. 3
Nov. 2014. <https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/copyright/felten.html>.
Jean-Baptiste Michel*, Yuan Kui Shen, Aviva Presser Aiden, Adrian Veres, Matthew K. Gray,
William Brockman, The Google Books Team, Joseph P. Pickett, Dale Hoiberg, Dan
Clancy, Peter Norvig, Jon Orwant, Steven Pinker, Martin A. Nowak, and Erez Lieberman
Aiden*. Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books. Science
(Published online ahead of print: 12/16/2010)
Karp, Hannah. "Apple ITunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales." The Wall Street Journal. Dow
Jones & Company, 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/itunes-music-sales-down-more-than-13-this-year1414166672>.
Pham, Alex, and Glen Peoples. "Seven Ways ITunes Changed the Music Industry." Billboard.
N.p., 25 Apr. 2013. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1559622/seven-ways-itunes-changed-themusic-industry>.
"Rip. Mix. Burn. ITunes Commercial [Extended] 2001." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Oct. 2009.
Web. 02 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pleybGLgaEc>.
Suskind, Alex. "15 Years After Napster: How the Music Service Changed the Industry." The
Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 6 June 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/06/15-years-after-napster-how-themusic-service-changed-the-industry.html>.
Taintor, Callie. "Chronology: Technology and the Music Industry." Frontline. PBS/WPSU, 27
May 2004. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
<ttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/inside/cron.html>.

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Music References:
Video Killed the Radio Star By The Buggles
Open Arms By Journey
Break Free By Ariana Grande
Centuries By Fall Out Boy
Stairway to Heaven By Led Zeppelin
Anaconda By Niki Minaj
Hysteria By Def Leppard
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go By WHAM
Battlefield By Jordin Sparks
Boogie Fever By The Sylvers
Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing) By Bill Medley
In the Air Tonight By Phil Collins
All Star By Smashmouth
We Didnt Start the Fire By Billy Joel
Single Ladies By Beyonce
For Good From Wicked
Happy By Pharrell Williams
In the End By Likin Park