Why do we still call them Albums?

[dtsig]

Don't get me wrong ... I have a BIG bucket of albums but just wondered why a tool developed with bits and bytes and used to handle bits and bytes would still reference same as 'Album' Thankfully they are finding vinyl as 'designer' now and us old fogies get to share the joys of hearing the wonderful vinyl (no sound like it) slow degrade

[Lowlander]

Are you referring to MediaMonkey as the tool? Album is still used as many will have a collection of Albums and Albums are still being sold. Even those who pick and choose tracks at download services will often end up with tracks from an Album. Additionally Artwork tends to be created for Albums, not tracks.

[Solitaire001]

It's likely a case of tradition, one that will be difficult to supplant with another term (such as "music collection"). For decades a collection of songs have been called an album regardless of the format. Plus, the music album is a somewhat recent development which didn't become into existence until the appearance of the 33 1/3 LP record when there was enough room for a collection of songs.

Before, music was released in the form of singles since that's all that previous formats could handle (such one song per side of a record). Even with the advent of the LP, the single still survived in the form of the 45 RPM record. As an example, when The Beatles were released on CD they used the U. K. albums as their basis. Due to this, many of their hits weren't released on CD until after the U. K. albums had been released. This is because many of their hits were only released as singles in the U. K.

[rovingcowboy]

it goes even farther back then that.
albums are the word used for a collection of songs the singer would carry with them. artist call it a portfolio, news men called it a jornel, as you can see those are still used but the album for singers basicly became music album for the end users and portfolio is now mostly used for the colletion carried around.
the use of the word collection back then was typical of a junk drawer today. so the other terms were used.

[Solitaire001]

After posting, I did some thinking and the use of the term "album" for music might have been influenced by photo albums. I remember that some 78 RPM records were grouped together (since they were two songs per disc) in a binder that, when closed, looked like a photo album.