Album, Album

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.

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 CD, DVD audio, cassettes and vinyl records, to digital ones such as MP3 and AAC files or streaming audio.

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.

From the dawn of the "album era" (in jazz, about 1954; in rock, about 1962) until about the mid-1960s, albums were often recorded as quickly as possible, sometimes in single sessions. (Prestige Records and Blue Note Records were famous for this; as well, The Beatles' first album and The Byrds' first four albums were all largely recorded in single sessions.) Vinyl LP records had two sides, each comprising one half of the album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles, these were often traditionally placed in particular positions on the album. A common configuration was to have the album led off by the second and third singles, followed by a ballad. The first single would lead off side 2. In the past, many singles (such as the Beatles' "Hey Jude") did not appear on albums, but others (such as the Beatles' "Come Together" and "Something") were also part of an album released concurrently. Today many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as a way of promoting the album. Albums have also been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished "demo" recordings.

In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides one and four would be printed on one record, and sides two and three on the other. The two records would then be stacked up on a spindle especially equipped to handle such albums, with side one on the bottom and side two on the top. The record containing side one would then automatically drop down on the turntable, and the tone arm containing the stylus needle would then automatically play the record. When that side was finished, the tone arm would swing back to allow the record containing side two to drop down on top of the record containing side one, and automatically begin to play.

Many albums also come with liner notes and inserts giving background information or analysis of the recording, reprinted lyrics, images of the performers, or additional artwork and text. These are now often found in the form of CD booklets.

Usually, rock albums with a particularly fast tempo, such as albums in punk rock and non-progressive thrash metal are the shortest, then albums in mainstream rock and pop; then hip hop albums are slightly longer. Progressive varieties of metal and rock, such as Dream Theater and Tool, may have songs around ten minutes long individually. Albums like these are usually around or over an hour. According to the rules of the UK Charts, a recording counts as an "album" if either it has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes.

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.

Source: Wikipedia > Album