Prince Kaybee, the ladies’ favorite heartthrob, discussed the collapse of album culture and how musicians now release fewer tracks due to consumers’ reduced attention spans.
Prince Kaybee recently ignited a discussion regarding the evolution of album culture over time, noticing how projects are becoming increasingly shorter.
KaBillion posted on Twitter (X) about the decline of music culture and how musicians used to enjoy creating 12- to 20-track albums to keep listeners engaged for hours.
According to research by Northeastern Global News, people’s attention span has decreased from two and a half minutes to 45 seconds, which Kaybee attributes to.
Musicians rarely release albums longer than 15 tracks, instead opting for follow-up (“deluxe”) projects to include previously unreleased material.
Towdeemac, a sound designer and Morafe member, discussed the evolution of music in an interview with HowSouth.
“Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the process of music creation and the rate of music consumption were relatively slow due to the tedious way of physical product development and packaging, such as having to book studio time weeks in advance or processes such as tape duplication and CD replication.
“These factors justified the slow pace of music production, the logistical intricacies of production distribution and how music outlets gatekept market access. The state of the industry abruptly underwent haphazard transformation around the rise of social media and online streaming.
“This new condition has economically affected creators and consumers to shift paradigms regarding how entertainment content is developed, packaged and accessed.
“This meant that consumers didn’t have to wait months for one of their favourite musicians to release an album or wait around all day to hopefully catch their favourite song on the radio. The alternative was to buy albums in the form of tapes and CDs to access one’s favourite tunes at will.
“Now, consumers can access their favourite artist’s everyday life on social media, let alone just their music, and this leaves very little space for bulky offerings like complete albums.
“Although people have a concentration span to binge-watch an entire season of a series, it still stands because visuals are stronger than audio when it comes to commanding attention over a span of time.
Album culture is so dead it hurts, back in the day working on 12 to 20 songs and compile them in such a way the consumer stays honed in till the last song used to be so exciting, today it is unachievable💔. The attention span has taken a decline even conversations must be as…
— K A B I L L I O N (@PrinceKaybee_SA) June 11, 2024