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Natalie Hanman wrote a nice piece for The Guardian lamenting the fact that the success of the digital single is overshadowing the LP, but her point presupposes that people aren’t interested in listening to music in long-playing form if given the choice. (A column, by the way, named after a Motown hit, from a company that eschewed LPs as an art form until Marvin Gaye pushed What’s Going On through.)
I have an iPod Shuffle and I almost always listen to LPs in sequence. Her statement that “digital music players, such as the iPod, do not respect the album format—that 40-minute-plus journey into the mind of your favourite band” is false. If anything, my iPod has enabled a more direct connection than I’ve been able to enjoy since I was teenaged. They are ideal for LPs. Hanman also calls for providers to offer “opportunities to complement albums, such as extra live tracks, remixes, music videos, artist interviews and artwork that could be downloaded with an album purchase”—innovations currently offered at the iTunes Music Store.
