Jermaine Dupri is Right

7:25 a.m. PT: The digital music player has enhanced the listening experience for consumers. We can download our favorite tunes for free in some cases, legally or illegally, and we can carry them everywhere in small, compact gadgets. We no longer have to trek to brick-and-mortar stores to buy music on compact disks. We don’t have to wait several days or weeks for CDs we ordered to arrive at our doorsteps.

The music: We want it how we want it, and we want it now. Instantaneous. And no shipping fees.

We’re modern-day hunters and gatherers, foraging through an abundant mass of products set loose by the Internet and rapidly changing technology. The abundance is almost decadent. As long as you have Internet access, you can find almost anything anywhere. And if you know where to look, you don’t even have to pay for it.

But how does this abundance look from the artist’s point of view? Every time someone downloads a copyright-protected song without permission, an artist’s and/or record label’s rights are violated. Every time someone opts to buy a single song instead of an entire album, the artist’s intended message may be lost in the process. That’s what rapper and producer Jermaine Dupri thinks.

An Album: A story with a beginning, middle, and end

I don’t know anything about Jermaine Dupri or his music. I probably wouldn’t like it if I listened to it. But he has a point.

Dupri, blogging for the Huffington Post, is complaining about the digital music store model, where users have the option of downloading individual songs instead of buying the complete album. He writes:

A good album is more than just a collection of singles…Every album is created for you to hear the next song, especially on rap albums. Rappers make intros on their records for a reason- they want you to listen it to set the mood and get ready for that second song.

I’m not saying that music can’t ever be sold as singles. Not every album is equal and consumers are always going to try to cherry pick the songs they like. But that doesn’t mean the people who[re] investing their time, money and sweat into a record shouldn’t have the right to decide how it’s gonna be sold, whether that’s in single units or as a whole.

Dupri claims that artists lose sales when fans download only singles. He wants artists to stick together against online music stores, which he says take “what we give them and [do] what they want with it.” If artists, producers, and record label execs rebelled against the iTunes model, then “those guys at Apple can either cooperate, or have nothing for people to buy and download on their iPods.”

I’ve heard artists talk about creating a “concept album,” where every song is bound together under an overarching theme. Dupri says the album American Gangster, on which he contributed, is a story with a beginning, middle, and end. I certainly understand their desire to sell a complete album, not just for the sake of money, but also for artistic integrity. I’d be upset, too, if I wrote a book and Amazon decided to sell individual chapters. That sounds ridiculous, right? But I guess music folks like Dupri feel the same about their albums.

Dupri is also right about sticking together. Perhaps online music stores would change the buy-the-single model if the music industry pushed for a change. But the horse is out of the barn. What’s the point in locking the door now? And how would online music store users react if the option to buy singles was gone?

Single Tracks: I understand, but…

If they feel they’re being used, artists like Jermaine Dupri should do something about it. His colleague Jay-Z refused to let iTunes sell only singles on American Gangster. Good for him. I dig the artistic integrity/money thing.

But I want the option to buy individual tracks.

For instance, when I hear a song on TV or in a movie that I like, I know I can hunt down the title and artist and download that song. I don’t want to buy the album that contains the song. Another example: I’m starting to expand my musical inventory. I listen to 30-second samples of songs by people I’ve never heard of. More often than not, I’ll download only one or two songs that appeal to me. Until I get to know the artist’s work, I choose not to download entire albums. Unless I can download them for free.

That’s just the nature of consuming. Why pay for the mediocre whole when we can get the excellent parts? The Internet has amplified this tendency. That’s why CD sales are down.

Is the behavior of an artist’s fans, hardcore or otherwise, any different from new music samplers? Most likely. Looking at my own behavior, I tend to buy an entire album if I’m familiar with the band. I do this to sort of help them out and because I know I’ll end up liking the majority of songs.

For example, I watched Hanson’s docu-series titled “Taking the Walk” (available as a free download on iTunes) about how the brothers made their latest album, The Walk. I didn’t consider myself a fan at the time, but I became one as I saw them labor over every song. They worked when they were tired, sick, frustrated…They changed lyrics, keys, rhythm – whatever they had to do to find the perfect lyrical hook or sound. They decided not to add certain songs to the album because those songs didn’t fit the message they were trying to convey.

I liked some songs more than others, but when I was ready to pull out the wallet, I didn’t think twice about buying the complete package. Seeing the process of making The Walk, as well as hearing most of the album’s songs, sold me on the whole.

Perhaps artists like Dupri and others who complain about the buy-the-single model can give consumers an incentive to buy albums. They can create a docu-series similar to Hanson’s or offer an exclusive sneak peak before the album goes on sale.

Then again, they already have the choice to not offer their music to online stores that sell individual tracks. It’s all about choices. Artist’s have theirs, and we have ours.

Do you agree with artists like Jermaine Dupri? (My answer is “Yes, but…”) Do you prefer having the option to buy individual tracks?

Critiques:

• Jermaine Dupri is a Corporate Tool
• Jermaine Dupri proves the industry is doomed

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• World Between Ears