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I've been thinking about this for a while. Most people I know generally listen to playlists on Spotify or Apple Music when they want to listen to a series of related songs. They don't usually play albums. But of course when albums look almost identical to playlists on Spotify, what distinction can be made between the two? When Drake released a collection of new songs a couple years and called it a playlist, he sparked a lot of confusion over why his new "album" or "mixtape" was being marketed as a playlist, despite eventually seeing limited physical CD release (I believe). On the other hand, when Kanye West released a new album in 2016, he refused to make a physical release available or even put the mp3 tracks up for sale on iTunes, at first claiming it could only be streamed on Tidal, but eventually uploading it to all the major streaming services. Interestingly, this allowed him to go back and make changes to the album after it was released, updating it with new mixes and new ideas, similar to how one might update songs on a playlist and swamp out worse tracks for better ones. Throughout all of this, and despite never seeing a purchase-able release, that group of songs has still been referred to as an "album" by both artist and consumer. Why did listeners and critics roll their eyes or scratch their heads when Drake attempted to release his new album under the guise of a "playlist," but it was widely accepted when Kanye made what was in many ways a playlist and called it an "album?" If an album demands no physical release, and can even exist without being able to be sold, and can even be edited after its initial release, what then differentiates an album from a playlist? Is it up to the label on Spotify, and if so why does Spotify list Drake's self-proclaimed "playlist" as one of his albums? And maybe most curiously, why does a world of listeners that mostly listens to playlists or single songs rather than albums (and perhaps always has preferred singles and Spotify playlists' distant ancestor, the radio, to albums) still care about the release of new albums or the concept of albums in general? If playlists and Spotify are supposedly rendering the album obsolete, why do even major, boundary pushing artists still choose to release albums? And why would a modern megastar like Drake be unable to sway people away from the idea that new music being released doesn't necessarily come in album form? Why still do other artists trying to break out of the defunct album format decide to release new music in a series of EPs which will constitute the album when put together (and why do we keep the term EP around when only people who know about records even know what EP means)? tl;dr see the title Apologies for those who couldn't care less what Drake or Kanye West do with new music releases, or who they even are. They happen to be the most interesting examples to use here, despite TRF not having much of an audience for either one.