Early record "albums" were in book form, resembling photograph albums

An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. 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 concert is a live Performance, usually of Music, before an Audience. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages

The tracks on an album may be related by subject, mood or sound, and may even be designed to express a unified message or tell a story (as in the case of a concept album), or the tracks may simply represent a convenient grouping of recordings made at one time or place, or recordings whose commercial rights are controlled by a single record label. Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies In Popular music, a concept album is an Album which is "unified by a theme which can be instrumental compositional narrative or lyrical" 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). In terms of recorded Music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an Album. 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 CDs, DVD audio, cassettes and vinyl records, to digital ones such as MP3 and AAC files or streaming audio. A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering very High-fidelity audio content on a DVD. The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a Magnetic tape sound A gramophone MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression Advanced Audio Coding ( AAC) is a standardized lossy compression and encoding scheme for Digital audio. Streaming multimedia is Multimedia that is constantly received by and normally presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the

The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78 RPM Phonograph disc records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album. The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded Sound from the 1870s through the 1980s A gramophone 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. The Nutcracker (Щелкунчик Shchelkunchik) Op 71 is a Fairy tale - Ballet in two acts three scenes by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Odeon Records was a Record label founded by Max Strauss and Heinrich Zunz in Berlin, Germany. ^[1][2] It retailed for 16 shillings — about £56 (US$101) in 2005 currency. The shilling is a unit of Currency used in current and former Commonwealth countries and was continued to be used in countries that left the commonwealth The Pound Sterling ( symbol £; ISO code: GBP) subdivided into 100 pence (singular penny) is the Currency The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

In 1948, Columbia produced the first 12 inch, 33⅓ RPM microgroove record made of vinyl. Columbia Records is an American Record label founded in 1888 Columbia is the oldest surviving Brand name in pre-recorded sound being the first record company Long play (LP record albums are 33⅓  Rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records generally either 10- or 12- Inches in diameter A vinyl compound is any Organic compound that contains a vinyl group (also called ethenyl) &minus C[[Hydrogen H]] =CH sub>2 ^[1] With a running time of 23 minutes per side, these new records contained as much music as the old-style album of records and, thus, took on the name "album". For many years, the standard industry format for popular music was an album of twelve songs, originally the number related to payment of composer royalties. Royalties (sometimes running royalties) are usage-based payments made by one party (the "licensee" to another (the "licensor" for ongoing use of an

Traditionally, an album ranged in duration from half an hour to an hour, depending on the genre and record label. In the Music industry, a record label can be a Brand and a Trademark associated with the Marketing of music recordings and Music American pop albums tended to be around a half hour; British pop albums were somewhat longer, often containing 14 songs instead of 11 or 12; jazz albums were longer still; and classical albums were the longest of all. 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. Prestige Records was a Record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock ( October 2, 1928 &ndash January 14, 2006) The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 The Byrds were a popular American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964 )

Vinyl LP records had two sides, each comprising one half of the album. Long play (LP record albums are 33⅓  Rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records generally either 10- or 12- Inches in diameter 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. The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 " Hey Jude " is a song by the English rock band The Beatles that was recorded in 1968 " Come Together " is a song by The Beatles written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney. " Something " is a single released by The Beatles in 1969 and featured on the album Abbey Road. 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. A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of 7 inch Vinyl records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s

Today, with the vinyl record no longer being used as the primary form of distribution, the term "album" can still be applied to any sound recording collection, such as those on compact disc, MiniDisc, Compact audio cassette, and digital or MP3 albums. A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio A MiniDisc ( MD) is a Magneto-optical disc-based Data storage device initially intended for storage of up to 80 minutes of digitized audio The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a Magnetic tape sound MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression Cover art is also considered an integral part of the album. Cover art is the Illustration or Photograph on the outside of a published product such as a Book, Magazine, Comic book, product package 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. For a bibliographic format for citing liner notes see WikipediaCiting sources/example style Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes Lyrics (in singular form Lyric) are a set of words that accompany music either by speaking or singing These are now often found in the form of CD booklets. For a bibliographic format for citing liner notes see WikipediaCiting sources/example style Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes

Due to the large capacity of new media (compact discs originally ran to 74 minutes, later extended to 80 minutes) and the lack of any formal "side" divisions, the matter of how long an album should be is open to debate, although most albums today are at least 30 minutes long. 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 the longest. Thrash metal (sometimes referred to simply as thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized by its fast tempo and aggression Hip hop is a cultural movement which developed in New York City in the 1970s primarily among African Americans and Latinos. 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. The UK Albums Chart is a list of Albums ranked by sales in the United Kingdom. ^[3] Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as EPs, an abbreviation of extended play, "extended" meaning longer than a single but shorter than an LP. An extended play ( EP) is a Vinyl record, CD, or Music download which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify Long play (LP record albums are 33⅓  Rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records generally either 10- or 12- Inches in diameter The term "mini-album" may also be used.

If an album becomes too long to fit this format, a recording artist may make the decision to release a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in a single case, or a triple album containing three LP's or compact discs. A double album is an audio Album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold (especially records and Compact Discs. Long play (LP record albums are 33⅓  Rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records generally either 10- or 12- Inches in diameter A triple album is a musical work whose length forced it to be released on three LP records The first triple album is generally considered to be George Harrison 's

Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue will often re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums, or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets. A box set (sometimes referred to as a boxed set) is a compilation of various musical recordings Films Television programs or other collection 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. Long play (LP record albums are 33⅓  Rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records generally either 10- or 12- Inches in diameter

See also

• List of albums
• Single (music)
• Extended play
• Long play
• Release (music)
• Compact disc
• Album cover
• Liner notes

References