Muse will be holding off releasing an album for a while.
The British stadium rockers feel with the rise of streaming many music fans prefer listening to singles and creating their own playlists, and so they’ve decided to stick to releasing the odd song here and there for now.
Speaking about the ‘Plug in Baby’ hitmakers adapting to the changes, bassist Chris Wolstenholme said: "I think the industry has changed too much since we started, certainly since we put our first record out. But even in the last five or six years, streaming has become the way that most people seem to listen to music this days and I think that’s affected the way people listen to music. People tend not to consume themselves in entire albums like they did when I was younger. It seems to be that the whole industry and the platforms for listening to music are catered around people listening to individual songs and creating their own playlists and things like that."
Chris – who is joined by lead singer Matt Bellamy and drummer Dominic Howard in the rock trio – says it’s less pressurised just dropping singles and means they don’t have to worry about the relentless album promo cycle.
He told Music Feeds: "So I think it was something that was worth a try, just putting out the odd single here or there. "There’s less pressure as well. We decided after ‘Drones’ we were going to take a little bit of time off, and that we wouldn’t tour heavily this year but we didn’t want to disappear completely.
"Sometimes as a band — even in times when you’re off — you don’t necessarily feel like you want to make an entire album, but sometimes it’s quite nice to get together as a band for a bit of fun and if anything comes of it you think well, ‘Well why not release it as a standalone single?’
"I think for years things have been tapered around an album campaign, promoting an album and having singles to promote the album.
"I guess we all felt that with the way that streaming works these days and that there’s so much emphasis on individual songs, that there was no reason why we couldn’t do that."
On when fans can expect a follow-up to 2015’s ‘Drones’, Chris said: "I know at some point we will do another album but I think it’s a nice thing to do in the meantime so the fans feel like they’re still getting something; we haven’t completely disappeared off the face of the planet."
Muse to release singles in place of album for now
