Quote:
Originally Posted by orbitalaspect
I wonder if aMEI will end up following. She's 19 albums in at this point, like Jolin is now 15 in? IIRC. I was very surprised to see Angela Chang do a new album, considering her last couple records haven't been very successful at all. (I didn't like Head Over Heels at all! Didn't sound like she put much effort at all into the album...)
But still, Yisa Yu, Stef Sun, Tanya Chua, even Sandy Lam... I just can't imagine them moving to this singles/EP market. Especially Stef. Since her return in 2011, she's just completely shook me with It's Time, Kepler, and then Dancing Van Gogh... Her work really is around the album. Same with aMEI. I discovered her in 2014 with FOP... and everything she's done since then has been a top song or album. I still can't get over Story Thief... It's one of the most beautiful records I've ever listened to.
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well, Sandy Lam retired, so no new album, not even EP for quite a long time (if ever), but she still might be doing some movie theme songs.
Stef Sun is currently on hiatus / maternity leave, she said she is going to take a longer break from the industry when she was releasing A Dancing Van Gogh album.
Just FYI, if you are not aware of this
But I think there is still a room for albums ... just not for physical releases. Even Jolin was thinking about releasing UGLY BEAUTY only digitally before it was released. I guess (and this is simply my guess) the record company persuaded her to release it physically, but I think UGLY BEAUTY will be her last physical album. If another one will be released physically, only in limited copies or only vinyl copy for collectors. But I even doubt that considering the fact she is usually appealing to younger audience.
I cannot see Amei go only for EPs as well, she is truly an artist releasing concept albums (and then receiving many prizes for her work).
I don't really think it matters if you have released 2 or 15 albums at this point. It is all about popularity. Once your music is doing well, you can still be releasing albums without much worries. Especially, if those albums are supported by tours, there is huge money in that.
In mainland China, physical releases were never a big thing, and now market is completely dominated by digital services offering you a new music and it works more than great there (again if your releases are supported by concerts). There are many new artists/groups that have been formed in recent years/months in China and if you are visiting chinese music forums, you can find a new album almost every day.
I think it is just Taiwan (and partly Hong Kong) where physical albums are still pressed, sold and bought but that market will go through similar change as mainland China in upcoming years. It is basically inevitable, but that's not because of music not being sold, it is just pointless at this point to focus on physical releases.
To be honest, I am quite old-school-type-of-guy when it comes to music albums (and even movies). I like to touch CDs in my hands, go through the booklet ... but all the albums I bought in the last couple of years, I have never played them even once because of the very simple reason, there is nowhere to play it in my house. I don't own a stereo anymore (the old one broke and I couldn't see point buying a new one), there is no CD player in my car, and even my gaming laptop doesn't have CD-Rom. So even me, who was saying I will always buy albums, is not buying albums physically anymore. And believe me if you would know me, you would have said that I am going to be the last one
But that doesn't mean there is no room for new music, people just don't consume it through CDs, cassettes, USBs anymore, everything is digital (digital music markets, Spotify, YouTube - or chinese equivalents of these services).
I even read some kind of statistic few months back (if I remember correctly, done by Forbes), that artists are not making less money nowadays, quite opposite, it is just money are not made by selling your music, but by supporting activities such as tours and concerts (mostly), putting your MVs on YouTube, being listened to on Spotify etc.
So overall, I don't really think the era of albums is over (I can simply name you 300 albums released in China this year), it is just physical releases that are becoming redundant, or as in mainland China already became redundant. But I couldn't notice much changes in mainland China music market just because they are not releasing music physically.