According to the opinion in this vulgar article (heh heh), maybe they have been:

http://www.tommyv2.com/06november20.htm

As I read it I had some conflicting feelings. I really like my iPod and I really do enjoy having all of my albums in a tiny little device clipped to my belt. But at the same time... in the past few years I haven't really listened to entire albums as a whole as much as I used to. And I know that if I didn't have an iPod or similar storage device, I would be listening to full CDs instead of skipping around. I'm way too guilty of listening to something and then skipping on several seconds later.

The MySpace thing is just icing on the cake, but does anyone else out there agree? Is this internet generation as a whole too "ADD" for their own good? I find myself on the line, 50-50. There are some albums I can listen to for hours, but I'm probably unfamiliar with 10-20% of the stuff I ripped to my iPod. I know that if this was several years ago, I'd be familiar with everything because I'd be listening to the discs more frequently.

I know almost everyone hear uses digital files to listen to music in one form or another, so I'm curious to see what people have to say.

EDIT: Maybe a better question would be along the lines of "Do you still listen to entire albums?"

As for that Rant of an article, those trends and issues were already taking root and happening LONG before mp3s or ipods even existed. 

Even before the first mp3 file ever got encoded, people were dismayed that CDs were morphing away from songs which work together "to form a coherant whole" as albums were the LP days, into CDs being merely "a collection of singles".

If anything, ipods only continued the already pre-existing condition, not caused it.
(People didn't try to blame the CD format itself for causing this, so why try to blame ipods?)

As for him saying this screws the artist out of luck since only 1 or 2 hit singles sell instead of the entire album, well there ain't many artists who can even make 12 good songs to package as an album in the first place, so signing some better artists would solve that little problem of his.   

Again, that's a preexisting condition, not something new
(the term 'one-hit wonders' was coined in the 80s ya know...)

And made it much easier to do so, too.

Zing!

I agree with Carl in that I'd much sooner place the artists at fault for the "collection of 12 singles" standard long before I'd blame the format.

Taken aback by hits played at random? I wonder how he feels about that newfangled radio?  That's how I've always viewed MP3 players--personal, commercial free radio stations that play everything you like and nothing else. I understand his point about albums being one cohesive work, but I don't see what's so wrong the the Top 40,000 radio either. It doesn't have to be one or the other, anyhow.

The whole article smacks of bitter, technophobic "I'm old which means I know better and kids are stupid." I don't know if that's satirical or sincere, but either way, I think it's going to help convince anyone.

Great response, Carl.  I see no reason to pity the music industry and overlook its failures.

It depends on how you use things...iPods and iTunes offer so many ways to customize things, they're very much an evolution over "standard" albums. Custom playlists, individual albums (which would seem to render the whole article moot), everything on shuffle (though I take issue with the randomness in iPods)...It's all there and ready to use and be customized. Don't like that bad track in the middle of the CD? Right click, delete, BOOM!...It's gone and you've freed up some pod space to boot. Want to combine those seperate "Ys Perfect Collection" CD's into a single listing (and throw in the 5 "Music from Ys" arranges while you're at it)? Why waste a CD-R when you just alter the album names. I think I pitched about 3 spindles worth of CD-R's from situations like this the other day (though most were for albums I had done volume adjustments with...something iTunes makes ridiculously simple).

I have plenty of unknown stuff on my iPod...I keep three seperate lists: Constants, Huge RPG's, and RAM. Constants are all of the albums that stay on all the time. Huge RPG's are mostly RPG soundtracks I've gone through and basically gutted every track I didn't like from them. RAM is about 8 GB's of constantly-fluctuating albums I cycle in and out, mostly depending on mood. That's cool because I can just go to the playlist and stick all of those unfamiliar albums right on and not be bothered by stuff I already know I like.

That said, if I know exactly what I want to listen to...What the hell, nothing stopping me from pulling out my CD player. Makes sense to use the things more than once. Figure it'll save a quick iPod charge down the line.

And sorry...Most people with even a mediocre amount of tech savy know how to get around the use of the various music stores and get the whole thing for free anyway (as opposed to $1 per song or something similar). Not saying anymore about that, except it's the truth...

Yes, and on CD too.

My iPod (before it died) was nothing but a collection of albums.  I would always listen to a whole album all the way through.  I don't think I managed to ever listen to *all* of it, but I got around to listening to some albums that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Yep, me too.  I have an hour commute each way to work, so I bring a few different CDs each week.  Last week was Star Ocean 3 OST week.  I think this week will be Duran Duran. :P

This article was a waste of time.  His self-justifying point of view makes it seem like he was only writing in order to piss off people.  He needs to get over it; no one is forcing him to listen to mp3s.

I didn't read the article, but I know I was making mixtapes long before I had a CD player. So having a collection on you that you can instantaneously skip tracks on is pretty much a godsend for anyone who has had to sit through songs being recorded to cassette tapes.