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Album

Grouping of album releases by an artist usually released at the same time with the same title and tracks but in different formats for consumption (digital, CD, LP)

An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), or audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or in digital format. The album was the dominant format or unit of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s through to the early 21st century, a period that has been described in the industry as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued for certain album releases, though album sales in the 21st-century have been predominantly in CD and then downloadable (e.g. MP3) and streaming digital formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format, widely used alongside vinyl, from 1965 until being phased out by 1983—it was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape over the 1970s and early 1980s. The popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s before declining sharply during the 1990s as it yielded market share to compact disc formats. In the early 2000s, sales of CDs—which also typically contained around 45-60 minutes (or 'an album') of music—became the primary distribution mechanism for recorded music, until the rise in the 2010s of digital, whereby albums could be downloaded and then streamed through 'streaming services' or 'platforms' such as Spotify. An enormous variety of albums are now more widely (often globally) available, and listening to an album has been made cheaper, more convenient and more popular, through such services. Most albums are recorded in a recording studio, making them studio albums, although they may also be recorded at a concert venue, at home, in the field, or in a mix of these and other places. The total time to record an album varies between a few hours and several years. Recording usually requires several takes of each track, each component piece of the album: in each track, different parts may be recorded separately, and then brought or "mixed" together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation, to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", have more reverberation, which creates a "live" sound. Recordings, including live, when published may contain editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, and other manipulations of the sound that was initially recorded. With modern recording technology, including multitrack recording, various artists collaborating on a track or album can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times, perhaps while listening through headphones to certain other parts recorded earlier. Album covers and liner notes may accompany an album, the latter of these conveying additional information, such as song lyrics, biographical information on artists, analysis of the recording, or librettos in the case of classical music and opera recordings. Historically, the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book or photo album format. In musical usage, the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. 'Albums' of recorded sounds were first developed for recorded music in the early 20th century: individual 78 rpm records (78s), each side of which could contain some 3 minutes of sound (enough for a song, piece, or 'track') were physically collected together and sold in a bound book resembling a photo album. This format evolved after 1948 into vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33+1⁄3 rpm; these contained some 22 minutes of sound per side, giving an approximate 45 minutes of music per LP record. When these LPs were introduced, a collection of pieces or songs on a single record was called an "album"; the word was extended to other recording media such as compact disc, MiniDisc, compact audio cassette, 8-track tape and digital albums as they were introduced. An album would typically have more tracks than an extended play (EP) record, which might contain only a 'single' (a single track released on its own), or two or three songs released together.