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Sufjan Stevens questions the relevance of the album

There has been a lot of chatter on the Internet about the continued relevance of the physical album, with illegal downloading—and just downloading in general—changing the industry profoundly. Pitchfork caught a great interview between indie singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens and Paste magazine, in which Stevens seems to cop to experiencing a kind of musician’s crisis of faith.

Stevens, you’ll recall, half-jokingly proposed a series of concept albums, with each record being about one of the 50 states. He got through two of them—Michigan and Illinois (with the latter having the awesome title of Come On, Feel the Illinois)—and hasn’t done a state album since. In the Paste interview, he says it was definitely just a joke, but he also says the following: “I’m wondering, why do people make albums anymore when we just download? Why are songs like three or four minutes, and why are records 40 minutes long? They’re based on the record, vinyl, the CD, and these forms are antiquated now. So can’t an album be eternity, or can’t it be five minutes? ... I no longer really have faith in the album anymore. I no longer have faith in the song.”

Going into the new decade, this is a crucial question that the music industry—including everyone from artists and labels, but also including music buyers—will be attempting to answer. One thing that’s not going away? Concert tickets on StubHub.