"Even as listeners' attention spans have dwindled, the art of making and promoting an album persists. In 2021, Adele convinced Spotify to remove shuffle as the default option for playing an album, telling fans, "Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended." Around the same time, Taylor Swift shifted her strategy to release albums in their entirety, instead of teasing fans with a breadcrumb trail of singles."
"This year, Spotify Wrapped presented users with their most-played albums for the first time. The feature was paired with a brief proclamation: "Long live the album." Indeed, musicians have long extolled the challenges and virtues of crafting a full-length tracklist."
"Many artists strive to hold our attention for longer than one song. The ones who succeed deliver cohesive, intentional bodies of work, in which no part is greater than the sum."
Spotify Wrapped introduced a most-played-albums feature accompanied by the proclamation "Long live the album." Musicians continue to value crafting full-length tracklists despite shrinking attention spans. Adele secured the removal of shuffle as the default on Spotify, saying, "Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended." Taylor Swift began releasing albums in full instead of drip-releasing singles. Successful albums prioritize cohesion and intentional sequencing so that the whole outweighs individual songs. A ranked list identifies the 20 best albums of 2025, featuring artists such as Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, Rosalía, and Addison Rae, with a Spotify playlist available.
Read at Business Insider
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]