The Age of the Album—which lasted a little more than 30 years, from the late 60s till the early aughts—was a very good time for the business of selling music. The album format had a much higher profit margin than the previously dominant single, and it funded a period of music-industry excess that seems positively Caligulan, especially from the vantage point of the relatively austere Age of the Download.
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This tactic stoked a fair amount of animosity, which found an outlet in 1999—the year Napster made it possible for huge numbers of consumers to decide that “free” was a fairer price for an album. The format took another hit in 2003, when the iTunes Store gave consumers the option to pick only the good tracks from an album at 99 cents apiece. Over the past several years, the practice of de facto industry-standard album pricing has continued to crumble, eroded by hip-hop-style giveaway mix tapes, name-your-price downloads, and a growing number of innovative pricing plans. It’s a good time to ask what an album is really worth and why.
Shipley and his comrades chose to get in on the action. “We had to do the same thing and go to eBay and say, ‘Look, there are going to be people out there just buying them to flip them.’ I see no reason why we should be propping up an entire secondary market.” Numero’s Ebirac records fetched around $200 until the $100 “Buy It Now” price depressed their value. The label’s eBay store is empty now, waiting for the next stock worth auctioning.
