Everything about Music Album totally explained
An
album or
record album is a collection of related
audio or
music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live
concerts or on their
websites.
The tracks on an album may be related by
subject,
mood or
sound, and may even be designed to express a unified message or tell a story (as in the case of a
concept album), or the tracks may simply represent a convenient grouping of recordings made at one time or place, or recordings whose commercial rights are controlled by a single record label. A group of audio tracks is considered to be an album if it has a generally consistent track list (often with minor differences or
bonus tracks in different territories, or if the album is "reissued" at different times). An album may be released in a single format, such as on
compact disc, or in multiple media formats, ranging from physical ones such as
CDs,
DVD audio,
cassettes and
vinyl records, to digital ones such as
MP3 and
AAC files or
streaming audio.
The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78
RPM Phonograph disc records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album. The first collection of records to be called an "album" was
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, released in April 1909 as a four-disc set by
Odeon Records. It retailed for 16
shillings — about
£56 (
US$101) in
2005 currency.
In 1948,
Columbia produced the first
12 inch, 33⅓ RPM microgroove record made of
vinyl. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as EPs, an abbreviation of
extended play, "extended" meaning longer than a
single but shorter than an
LP. The term "mini-album" may also be used.
If an album becomes too long to fit this format, a recording artist may make the decision to release a
double album where two vinyl
LPs or compact discs are packaged together in a single case, or a
triple album containing three LP's or compact discs.
Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue will often re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums, or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as
box sets. Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or
LP records of new recordings at once, in the form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album.
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