New Music On JB's Horizon

[HurricaneSeason]

Edited

For the past couple of decades, the bread and butter — or, if you prefer the salt on the margarita — for Jimmy Buffett has been his live show.

It almost makes you forget Buffett makes records, too. But he does — and has for 45 years this summer. His releases started going Top 5 during the ’90s, and he nailed his first No. 1 with 2004’s “License To Chill.” But Buffett says he, like so many other artists, is taking his time figuring out the best way to release music in the digital age.

“Will we do another album? I don’t know the answer to that,” Buffett, 68, says by phone. “We’re just trying to find the system where the next batch of new music goes. It’s certainly not like it was when I started out, or for most of my career, for that matter.”

Yet Buffett acknowledges he’s still a fan of the traditional album, and he’s confident his fans feel the same way.

“For me, an album is just about adding something; if you like this, you can add it to the collection,” he explains. “I’m not out there trying to win hits or chase Grammys or (stuff) like that. I’m just trying to stay in the game at our level.”

Buffett sees the potential for using the digital world to his advantage, too — such as live or filmed streams of him and the band in the studio working on new music, and possibly investing the Parrotheads in the process.

“We can have ’em in there watching us make it, and they can say what songs they want — that’s the kind of thing I’m looking at,” he says. He also hopes that seeing an album being made will make fans more apt to actually buy it when it comes out.

“The beauty of having the other guys in the same room is you can switch gears and automatically make changes or go on to something else instead of having the one idea you’ve been presented with and having to bang your head against the wall to make it work,” he explains. “Truth be told, that’s the way it should be. That’s the way we made the last few albums, and it was an amazing experience. I think we all really, really enjoyed that, and I think that’s something people would enjoy seeing.”

http://www.macombdaily.com/arts-and-ent ... ts-horizon


His recent record sales have been decent. Not sure if any JB fan or Parrothead would be "more apt to actually buy it when it comes out" just because of the online thing because there's a certain core of his fan base that buys anything that is released. That's probably changed since the 1970s throughout the decades and it certainly got bigger in the 1990s.

I hope he does another album or however many and releases them in hard copy.

[Coolbreeze2444]

I haven't bought a CD in years, but there is still a market for them, although it's getting smaller all the time. I think JB would continue releasing hard copies, as well as downloadable music. For one thing, his market spans multiple generations and I'm sure a portion of his older fans, especially, would prefer a CD.

[SharkysMV1]

I haven't bought a CD in years, but there is still a market for them, although it's getting smaller all the time. I think JB would continue releasing hard copies, as well as downloadable music. For one thing, his market spans multiple generations and I'm sure a portion of his older fans, especially, would prefer a CD.

For my top/favorite bands, I always buy their CDs. I import the MP3s into iTunes at the highest bitrate possible (320) for a better (in my opinion) listening experience. Itunes and Amazon have their MP3s at 128-256.

[Air M'Ville Cap'n]

I've reach the point in the last year or two where I'm not buying the CD's anymore. Only the digital music. What I might do is purchase on vinyl if the artist released them, as a collector's item.

[HurricaneSeason]

I've only downloaded things that I can't get on CD, and it's only been maybe 5 things. I prefer CDs. The album (whether it's vinyl or CD) isn't dead and won't die. At least not for quite some time. As long as artists want to "say something" albums will exist. In some form anyway!

Although what blows my mind is how people go crazy for vinyl releases that are not recorded on analog - it's putting a CD on vinyl. It's not the same.

[HavanaMatt]

Always a fan of new tunes, bring 'em on !

[Parrothead Mania]

I'm one of the millennials who was left behind by current technology. I don't consider that a bad thing