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This whole debate suffers from a confusion and conflation of the commercial and artistic drivers in relation to recorded music and it's consumption. The commercial view (of which Ergatoudis is a representative) can only see music in terms of its function as a unit of commerce, and playlists, because they're digitally organised and accessed, are the best hope of making money from music for the industry. The concept of a playlist has been around since recorded music began, but they've always been 'owned' by the people who made them (ie mixtapes) - playlist activity takes place in an environment controlled and managed by the industry. The way artists make their music available has always been framed by the state of the available technology, but different kinds of composers are suited to different mediums. Pop song composers benefit from the 'single' format and have helped make the industry skip loads of money while, often, creating concentrated chips of musical and cultural gold. Other artists see themselves as being involved in an iterative process of development which suits itself to batches of songs/music being released periodically. It's interesting that most artists who fall into this latter category who release music exclusively in the digital domain do so in either 10 minute (EP length) or between 30 and 50 minute (album) batches. And don't get me started on the current DIY music culture, happily releasing vinyl albums and singles and cassette tapes for an audience more than happy to buy them. It's not the kind of audience people like Ergatoudis like to recognise though, because it's an audience more interested in the music than the (profit generating) box it comes in.

I think the danger of artists in the near future not wanting to record more than one or two attention-grabbing "bangers" rather than a whole album would surely only apply to the crap that's currently in the UK top 40 singles chart? Most of these artists aren't suited to the long-player. They've barely got one decent song to deliver, nevermind a whole album's worth! I see the album dying for many of today's pop, dance, r'n'b chart acts, because they create, essentially, 3-4 catchy singles and lots of album filler, and their audience are the ones who want to just hear the odd song on YouTube or on a playlist. But Indie/alternative/folk etc. artists will still consider the album as a collection of great songs, and I'm sure will continue to make them. Radio 1 listeners are not album buyers, simple as that. Don't panic everyone!!

An album is like a good book - riveting from start to finish. A playlist is like a anthology - good in parts but lacks cohesion.

Pretty good topic, really sweet reading. Now I gotta agree with Jude that, someone's way to listen to music is not the right way to do so, even if it make me sad to hear or see people from my age listening to long playlists and not caring with who the artist is, you see, I clashed with St. Vincent's music on a mixtape here, and went straight away find out more of her music, same with lots of artists I love. It's not about drawing lines and start pointing fingers on what's right, I worry more with the "album" format because it is an form of art, an expression of the artist in that time (length and number of tracks not included of course) and the same could be said with one track too, but not trying to hear it is the same as someone that googles "best quotes" from an writer to post on facebook status after reading five pages.
Yea I'm talking about this social behavior on what the statement "Playlist are the future" implies, it's not about right or wrong, it's about grow up and live knowing that art is not a secondary aspect of life, it's not the music playing low when you work, it's more than that, much, much more.

I mean the bottom line is that the album won't be dead until people stop making albums and despite the plummeting sales I think it's pretty notable that there's almost no sign whatsoever of artists or record labels abandoning them yet – will be interesting to see if that does happen.

What rubbish. All those artists regularly appear on my playlists.

Riiiight, because a digital album isn't an album...

Or Radiohead, or David Bowie etc etc.....