When I was a child – back in the Stone Age – there were individual songs sold.  Actually it was two or more songs at a time thanks to the B-sides of 45rpm singles.  But these songs were chosen specifically by the band in conjunction with managers and record companies.  Then along came a band from Liverpool called the Beatles.

During the mid-sixties, John, Paul, George and Ringo started tailoring their music to an album format.  Albums such as “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul” were best experienced by starting at song number 1 on side one of the album and finishing with the final song on side two.  The band paid careful attention to the placement of the songs.

This process reached its zenith on June 1, 1967 when the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band“.  Songs segued seamlessly together.  The AOR* format was born.  Throughout the rest of the ’60s and afterward, more and more albums and artists followed suit.  It was likely that fans knew every song on an album and the album’s play order.

By the time the ’90s rolled around, the trend had returned to single tunes.  When someone purchased an album, cassette, or CD, they were paying for 10 or more songs when they really only wanted to listen to one.  By the time iTunes rolled onto the scene, it made perfect sense to sell single songs.  However, it created some problems for classic rock artists and jazz musicians.

When I’m listening to “Back in the U.S.S.R.“, I fully expect to hear the guitar picked beginnings of “Dear Prudence” fading in.  The same goes for most of side two of “Abbey Road” and several other tunes such as Led Zeppelin II’s “Heartbreaker” into “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)”.

It is quite a nightmare to only hear a single tune from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon“.   If I hear “Speak to Me“, I had damned well better hear the rest of side 1 completely through “The Great Gig in the Sky“.

And thus is the problem of trying to sell single tunes from many older albums through iTunes or other online music services.  When I rip my albums to play on my computer or iPod, I generally use Adobe Audition to put some groups of songs together.  You have no idea how many times I’ve been angry at radio stations for playing Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and not including Carlos’ version of Gábor Szabó’s “Gypsy Queen“.

Now Pink Floyd is suing EMI in an online royalty case and at the heart of the matter is the way the music is being packaged.  The following is from Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) – Pink Floyd on Tuesday launched legal action against record label EMI in a case that centers around royalty payments and how music is sold in the digital age.

The group, which signed with EMI over 40 years ago and whose back catalog has been outsold only by that of the Beatles, is disputing how online royalty payments and the marketing of their music are calculated, the Press Association reported.

The band, whose albums include “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall,” is also challenging EMI’s ability to “unbundle” their albums and sell individual tracks online.

Robert Howe, Pink Floyd’s lawyer, told the High Court in London that a contractual clause “expressly prohibited” such “unbundling,” or the selling of tracks other than in their original configuration whether in physical or digital form.

He added that EMI’s position was that the prohibition “applies only to the physical product and doesn’t apply online.”

But that “makes no commercial sense” and was contradicted by the conditions used in the agreement with EMI, Howe argued.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

This has always been my argument against selling the Beatles’ catalog online.  After all, would you only want to see part of  Edvard Munch’s “The Scream“?  What if you paid a visit to the Sistine Chapel only to find the majority of the ceiling obscured by a canvas tarpaulin?  Thus it is with a work of art.  You want to experience it in its entirety, not in sections.  “The Wall“, “Abbey Road“, “Dark Side of the Moon“, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and many other albums are just that, works of art!

*Album Oriented Rock