EP/06: RISE and FALL of the ALBUM
The Rise and Fall of the LP Album format with Jeff Breithaupt
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Are the days numbered for the album format? In this episode we discuss the rise and fall of the album format with Jeff Breithaupt. Jeff is the lyricist half of the award-winning Breithaupt Brothers songwriting team; the co-author of two books on pop music in the 1970s; and Vice President for Media and Communications at Manhattan School of Music.
With streaming now accounting for well over 80% of music consumption, most consumers are not buying physical albums anymore. Beyond that, they are not consuming digital albums either. More and more, consumers are listening to singles and playlists - bypassing the album altogether. We sit down with Jeff to discuss the origins of the album and whether it will survive in the modern digital era.
Find the Breithaupt Brothers on Alma Records at: http://www.almarecords.com/artists/the-breithaupt-brothers/ and look for Jeff’s (and brother Don’s) books about 70s pop music: “Precious and Few” and “Night Moves” on Amazon.
About JEFF BREITHAUPT
Jeff Breithaupt is Vice President for Media and Communications at Manhattan School of Music, one of the world’s leading independent music conservatories, and the lyricist half of the award-winning Breithaupt Brothers songwriting team. He is the former Head of Communications and Culture, at the Consulate General of Canada in New York, where he worked for nearly 13 years to leverage Canada’s cultural riches in the service of enhancing Canada’s profile and diplomatic aims in New York City and beyond. As a former music journalist, Jeff made frequent contributions to publications including Performing Songwriter, The National Post, Ottawa Citizen, New York Resident, and Canada’s Saturday Night magazine. He is the co-author of two books on popular music in the 1970s (published by St. Martin’s Press, New York). The Breithaupt Brothers songwriting team (“songs worthy of inclusion in the Great American Songbook,” CBC Radio) are two-time finalists for the prestigious Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting and have had their songs performed by a who’s-who of jazz and Broadway vocalists; Toronto’s Koerner Hall featured an evening of their songs in November 2019. Jeff is creator and host of Cansplaining with Jeff Breithaupt, an upcoming podcast that will unpack Canada’s outsized influence on the world’s cultural stage; the first two episodes feature special guests Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik, respectively. Jeff’s long-running annual musical celebration of Canada Day (“New York City Rocks the Canadian Songbook”) is a staple of New York’s summer cultural season and perennial audience favorite at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater.
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