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While I’ve never particularly thought of Ash as rock trailblazers, there’s an interesting post on Mojo Blog about their decision to stop releasing traditional format albums.

“Marketing music in the traditional sense is becoming increasingly less financially viable,” say Ash, “It is now time to fully embrace the digital future of the music industry”. They claim their current album, Twilight Of The Innocents, will be the last of the old school – though they admit they envisage releasing ‘compilations’ of net-released tracks on the CD format.

Despite the fact that “fully embrace the digital future” sounds like a load of old toss, Wheeler and the lads have a point. I’d only buy an album these days if it was a classic. Or perhaps if somebody sent me a freebie.

The problem with albums, particularly in the pop genre, is that they contain a few great tracks earmarked for single releases. The rest is B-grade material, there to fill out the album.

With the advent of iTunes and other methods of downloading music, we consumers have a way to bypass the second rate album filler and just download the songs we like. That means bands will have to work a bit harder if they want to shift entire albums. And that’s not a bad thing. How long has the music industry been in decline, and how long has it deluded itself that illegal downloads have been the reason?

So, it’s interesting to see Ash’s innovative take on selling records. We already know they’re a capable singles band. If they can keep up the quality material, they might just prove the concept.

For me, I don’t think it’ll kill off the long player completely. There are bands capable of sustained quality songwriting for an entire album’s length. I mean, can you imagine the world without Led Zeppelin IV or Axis: Bold As Love? Yes, I know these are references from yesteryear - anybody know a good, modern band that can churn out a CD-load of good tunes?