The article touches on the move toward singles and the growing popularity of streaming radio-style services and on-demand listening but there's another thing they didn't really go into that I find to be more positive for the world of popular music in general: More variety.
When you have 10 or 20 albums getting the lion's share of the attention (and sales) each year, you end up with phenomena like platinum records. When the tools of creation, promotion, and distribution become more accessible, it stands to reason that the attention gets spread over a larger number of artists.
I just think about my own history of music-fandom and compare my childhood in the 1980s and my teens and early 20's in the 1990s with my listening habits now and it's crazy to think how I used to only really know about those big name acts that got lots of radio and TV airplay. Nowadays I can listen to something new (or something old I just discovered) every day and never seem to run out. Just as during my younger days, I still only buy like 5 full albums every year but back then, they were more likely to be the same 5 albums another young rock fan bought as well. Now they could be anything that really stuck out to me and I wanted to add to my collection.
More players means less platinum albums but more variety. I'd wager it's easier than ever to find something that really appeals to you rather than just picking from the relatively shallow pool of the top few albums in a given genre every year.
When you have 10 or 20 albums getting the lion's share of the attention (and sales) each year, you end up with phenomena like platinum records. When the tools of creation, promotion, and distribution become more accessible, it stands to reason that the attention gets spread over a larger number of artists.
I just think about my own history of music-fandom and compare my childhood in the 1980s and my teens and early 20's in the 1990s with my listening habits now and it's crazy to think how I used to only really know about those big name acts that got lots of radio and TV airplay. Nowadays I can listen to something new (or something old I just discovered) every day and never seem to run out. Just as during my younger days, I still only buy like 5 full albums every year but back then, they were more likely to be the same 5 albums another young rock fan bought as well. Now they could be anything that really stuck out to me and I wanted to add to my collection.
More players means less platinum albums but more variety. I'd wager it's easier than ever to find something that really appeals to you rather than just picking from the relatively shallow pool of the top few albums in a given genre every year.