In the age of Youtube, and one-click mp3 downloads, one wonders what kind of roles albums play in today’s world. Albums used to be the primary method of listening to music, but how are albums relevant today when we can get song recommendation and have instant access to any song we want? Let’s take a look at what albums have been traditionally good at: 1) Bulk discount: buying an album is usually cheaper than buying each song separately. 2) Professional playlisting: There is intrinsically value in an artist-generated playlist, the art work, the days of the LP. 3) Discovery: albums are great tools to promote more songs from the same artist (secondary discovery)It is said that radio and MTV transformed the music industry by virtualizing music discovery. I think digital formats completes that transformation. It’s common knowledge that CD sales are dropping and digital download is on the rise, but why do people prefer digital?A group of USC students interviewed by our partners at the Entertainment Technology Center tried to answer that very question about music discovery and consumption. It seems there are three reasons people prefer digital content.1) Convenience2) Creation of personal playlist3) Digital content supports better primary discovery tools • social media (Last.fm) • personalized music recommendation (Pandora.com) • user generaterd playlist sharing (Imeem.com) So are albums dead? I think not because people will always be interested in “more from this artist/ user”. Moreover, there is a bright future for albums in the area of new format and rich media content. However, something that I’d like to see more is for bands to stop using discography listing as their only way of presenting music on the web. Wouldn’t it be nice if there is also way to see the top-rated songs so checking out a new album or band can be quick an painless? After all, from it is shown from usability studies that unengaged audiences tend to lose interest in less than 10 seconds.