Interesting discussion here. I've just scanned the postings on this thread and I don't think anyone has brought up the point that MP3 and related digital audio technologies may be spelling the death of the "album".

I've heard about companies which are about to set up music "boutiques" in shopping malls where you can go and order up a customized CD with 15 or 20 of your favorite songs from a variety of artists which the boutique will download from their network and burn onto a CDR for you. The price will be the same or less than you pay for a regular CD.

MP3 is similar in that people downloading MP3 files from the web are dealing with songs one at a time.

The point here is that the idea of an "album" consisting of a wide sampling of songs by a particular artist, sometimes thematically linked, could go the way of the Dodo.

PM