Morgan Wallen’s new album, One Factor at a Time, didn’t want 36 songs to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated March 18)— however the sprawling tracklist definitely didn’t damage. The nation singer’s third studio album notched 501,000 album equal models in its first week of launch, based on Luminate, the largest week of 2023 and one of many largest debuts in current months.
One Factor at a Time undoubtedly benefited from its stats-padding size, but it surely nonetheless would have dominated the Billboard 200 had Wallen and his label, Huge Loud Data, opted for a median size. With the underside 18 tracks accounting for 36% of the album’s whole on-demand streams, if One Factor have been a single-CD, 18-track launch, Billboard estimates it could have moved about 360,000 models final week — placing it properly forward of the No. 2 album, SOS by SZA. The ten hottest tracks amounted to 41.8% of the album’s streams, with the monitor “Final Evening” alone accounting for practically 9% of the 36 tracks’ aggregated streams.
Actually, an 18-track One Factor at a Time would have bested most up-to-date No. 1 albums of their debut weeks, together with Lil Baby’s It’s Solely Me (216,000 models), SOS (318,000 models), Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains (185,000 models) and Tomorrow X Together’s The Identify Chapter: TEMPTATION (161,000 models). (That’s assuming One Factor at a Time would have bought the identical variety of CDs and digital albums with half as many songs.) Solely two current albums, Her Loss by Drake and 21 Savage (404,000 models) and Taylor Swift’s Midnights (1.58 million models), had higher debut weeks than the hypothetical, 18-track One Factor at a Time.
One Factor at a Time is a part of a curious paradox in present recorded music, because the widespread adoption of streaming companies has triggered artists to launch single tracks extra typically whereas releasing more and more lengthier albums, too. Whereas the album is waning in recognition, it stays an important inventive assertion and business occasion.
The pattern of longer albums runs counter to the experimentations of the early days of digital music. When Napster arrived within the late ’90s, many individuals believed file-sharing marked the loss of life of the album format. Within the ’00s, as customers more and more bought particular person tracks at on-line shops like Apple’s iTunes, labels experimented with the brand new paradigm. In 2005, Warner Music Group and Elektra Data founder Jac Holzman launched a digital-only label, Cordless Music, that launched music completely in “clusters” of three or extra songs as an alternative of albums or singles. In 2010, nation star Blake Shelton launched two six-song EPs — referred to as “six paks” — moderately than a single 10- or 12-track album.
In the present day, streaming dominates music consumption and impacts how artists and labels package deal music. Album gross sales are decrease than ever, however album lengths have by no means been longer. As a result of followers can stream a limiteless quantity of music for a hard and fast value, artists can add songs figuring out {that a} longer album equals extra streams. And since streams are inclined to account for much extra of an album’s chart place than downloads and purchases, artists have an incentive to maintain individuals listening.
The outcome has been “monitor creep,” a persistently rising variety of songs on widespread albums. In 2022, the highest 10 albums on the year-end Billboard 200 chart averaged 19.1 tracks and 69.9 minutes. The highest album, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, has 23 tracks and runs 81 minutes. Un Verano Sin Ti is a product of the streaming age: Bodily album gross sales account for simply 1.1% of its album equal unit gross sales in comparison with 97.5% for streaming. Monitor creep is made simpler contemplating that many albums, equivalent to SOS and Drake’s 21-track Licensed Lover Boy, don’t have bodily variations.
Modifications in how albums are counted for the Billboard 200 can most likely assist clarify a number of the monitor creep: In 2014, the yr Billboard began incorporating streams into the Billboard 200 chart, the highest 10 albums averaged 13.2 tracks and 51.9 minutes, which means album lengths have elevated by about six tracks and 18 minutes within the final eight years. (Right here, Billboard counts solely studio albums and excludes soundtracks and Broadway forged recordings, that are full of rating and instrumental tracks.)
In 1992, when CD gross sales started to dominate recorded music revenues, the highest 10 albums averaged 11.9 tracks and 51.1 minutes. Garth Brooks had two of the 4 10-track albums within the high 10 — Ropin’ the Wind and No Fences — and the longest, Completely Krossed Out by hip-hop duo Kriss Kross, had simply 15 tracks. Albums — significantly within the nation style — typically topped out at ten tracks, a restrict set by document labels for paying mechanical royalties to music publishers.
In 1977, when the vinyl LP dominated the trade, the highest 10 albums averaged 10.3 tracks and 45.1 minutes, and half of them had fewer than 10 tracks. The longest, Stevie Wonder’s double album, Songs within the Key of Life, had fewer tracks — 17 — than half of 2022’s high 10 albums. The highest album of 1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, ran solely 39 minutes — a full half-hour shorter than the typical size of 2022’s high 10 albums. (Within the 1977 high 10, Billboard included the soundtrack to A Star Is Born, which had solely 11 tracks. That’s in comparison with 32 tracks for the Frozen soundtrack, the highest album of 2014.)
One Factor at a Time may not want 36 tracks to high the Billboard 200, however having extra songs means the album will get extra streams and generates better royalties. The least-popular 18 songs amassed 170.3 million on-demand streams within the album’s debut week. If these 18 tracks have been launched as a separate album — much like the best way Guns N’ Roses launched Use Your Phantasm volumes 1 and a pair of concurrently in 1991 — it could have been the No. 2 album of the week. Extra tracks present diminishing returns however can contribute meaningfully to a profitable document. Wallen’s earlier album, the 32-track Harmful: The Double Album, has acquired about 22% of its whole monitor consumption — streams plus downloads — from its less-popular half. For a label that invests closely in advertising and marketing and selling an album, monitor creep can enhance the return on every launch.
One thing the One Factor album has that single tracks and EPs lack is the oomph surrounding their advertising and marketing and promotion. Within the wake of Napster, individuals could have underestimated the album’s capacity to be an occasion unto itself. Single tracks get the eye of each followers and streaming companies’ algorithms, however neither has the promotional affect of releasing a full album. So long as a label is driving consciousness to a brand new launch, why not give followers just a few extra songs?
Plus, artists don’t launch albums as steadily as they used to. Within the late ‘70s, artists typically put out an album yearly. In the present day, an artist will take two or three years — and sometimes longer — between albums. Placing out longer albums may assist labels make up for these widening gaps, with the caveat that solely famous person releases are inclined to benefit the sort of sprawling size seen within the type of current releases by Wallen, Drake and others.
This sort of full-court press additionally serves to extend — and enhance — the success of particular person tracks that will fade extra shortly with out an album connected. Eight of the 36 tracks on One Factor at a Time have been launched previous to the album’s avenue date and placing up sturdy numbers on their very own. Nonetheless, their streams elevated 89% the week of the album’s launch. 4 of the 8 tracks ended up within the Billboard Scorching 100. In its sixth week on the Scorching 100, Wallen’s single “Final Evening” shot from No. 5 to No. 1 after a 53.5% leap in streams. Three different beforehand launched tracks — “One Factor at a Time,” “You Proof” and “Thought You Ought to Know” — broke into the highest 10 of the Scorching 100.
