The rock album format is dead. The cd is dead. The music ‘industry’ is dead. But music is not because something real can never die. I’m finally starting to realize this now although I have been silently aware of it for quite awhile. It takes sometime before the paradigm shift is set aside enough for a new paradigm to emerge. There are still nostalgics who supposedly love the album format and I think something can be done to bridge the gap with the new and old. That is what innovation is all about.
I brainstormed on this last night and came up with something that might prove to be very effective (at least for me). Since I have a lot of material and a lot of it can be categorized into groups based on genre, lyrics, emotions, vibe, tunings, etc., I think I will make just one giant album that will be divided into 6 song mini-albums. The title of the whole thing will be the same as before (Light Me Up Oh Burning World!) which I think is a very powerful slogan in and of itself.
Therefore I will finish the basic guitar tracks for 6 songs (i’m still on number 4) and then start working on all the other stuff (vocals, keyboards, etc) until they are finished. After that, they will be mixed, mastered and released online via my website and I will start working on the next batch of 6. This is great because I can keep the songs coming and my (potential) fans will not lose interest. It also means that I can start getting things going online sooner.
For now I am going with an idea of “10 mini-albums; 60 songs” which can one day be released as a giant box set for the hardcore (potential) fans. Sold for a reasonable price of course. I am still not sure how to go about pricing the songs and mini-albums but I am doing research on it to understand the game more.