Streaming services have changed music and how we listen to it, and for the better too. No longer do you need a CD player to listen to your favorite music. Now millions of songs are available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, allowing you to listen to as many songs by as many different artists as your heart desires. However, this has impacted how albums chart on the Billboard 200, and for the worse. There are three things the Billboard 200 calculates and adds together to determine a total number of copies sold for album X in a particular week: 1. The physical copies sold 2. The amount of legal digital downloads sold 3. If a song is streamed 1,500 times on an album, that counts as one album sale. That last rule has been a key component in the bloated length of rap albums nowadays. It seems so many albums are 20 songs or longer in an attempt to increase their sales numbers. But the listeners are being robbed, and maybe this is hurting the artists. Some examples of very bloated albums in the past year or so: Queen by Nicki Minaj had 19 tracks. Death Race For Love by Juice WRLD had 22. Culture II by Migos had 24. Scorpion by Drake had 25. The thing about these artists is their music is not that versatile, with the exception of Drake. The vast majority of Juice WRLD's music is about some sort of heartbreak or relationship* and Migos do not usually stray from their formula of rapping about all the finer things in life (drugs, women, clothes, jewelry) over a typical trap beat with some energetic ad-libs. These artists are not bad, and can make enjoyable songs. I actually enjoyed many of Migos's mixtapes and their Culture album. But it is like if a movie uses the same joke over and over again; does a listener really want to listen to the same song repeated 20 times? *Yes, I know Drake has some music about this. But real Drake fans know he has a lot more diversity in his music than singing or rapping about how some girl hurt his feelings. For Juice WRLD, this seems to be his go-to topic the vast majority of the time. Additionally, this so-called "boost in sales" is really only going to apply to the first week. If an artist releases an album with about 21 tracks, their fans will more likely than not listen to the whole thing. However, they will more likely than not end up being disappointed in it and may lose some faith in the artist. They will listen to it in the first week, but will more likely than not listen to it in the next couple of weeks outside of a few songs that they enjoyed. The saying "It's better to have a few close friends than many acquaintances" applies here: It's better to have ten or eleven good songs as opposed to 20+ average or below average songs. Those average and below average songs will not leave a lasting impression. Looking back at 2018, my four favorite albums of the year -- Daytona, Astroworld, KOD, and Some Rap Songs -- had 7, 17, 13, and 15 songs respectively, for an average of 13 songs per album. They didn't overstay their welcome, and even if Astroworld's number of tracks seems a little bit large, it had enough diversity to justify that length. I understand trying to go for that big first week sales number and trying to reel in as much dough is entertaining for this artist. But being truly remembered, making your fans (and critics) happier, and having more chart consistency -- that seems like the real prize. Hopefully albums start going away from this trend of throwing stuff at the wall until it sticks.
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