Wednesday, September 03, 2008

[08.09.02][news] The recent trend of split albums

The era where singers release full albums every one or two years with 10+ songs has passed. It seems that within the Korean music industry, the number of singers who release full albums is decreasing.

There is an emerging trend where singers now release single albums (including digital singles) or mini albums with 5-6 tracks, and then compiling all these tracks into one full album for a later release. It's already common in the US and the UK for singers to release a single prior to the release of the full album, and in Japan the format of the single album has also existed for some time now.



Shin Hyesung's 3rd album is also split into 2 mini albums according to genres. Side 1 - Live And Let Live, released on 26 August contains songs of alt-rock, britrock, swing and other genres that he hasn't attempted before. Side 2, which will see him returning to his ballad roots, will be released in December.



Such a trend is prompted by the slump of the music industry. For a full album, there would only be 1 to 2 hit songs at best, so if the albums are split for release, the artiste's media exposure is increased, and songs that would have been otherwise overlooked will also be released. At the same time, the inactive period between albums is also shortened.

For singer-songwriters, the cost of producing albums is also reduced, as they undertake the song composition, the lyrics and the music arrangement. All the resources would be concentrated in just one or two songs, greatly increasing the quality of the music.



Source: Oceans
Chi trans: 虫虫猪猪 @ bestshinhwa.com
Eng trans: midnightgirl13@shinhwabiz

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