05-13-2026, 02:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-10-2026, 03:07 PM by quiettheory.)
I believe the album lost relevance in the music industry partly because the container that held it stopped existing.
Before streaming, no corporation or entity owned the medium that albums used. Vinyl, cassette, CD, and the MP3 were open standards. The base layer that the music industry was built on top of was fair ground, while today the industry is built on top of tech platforms who get to shape the rules, as well as our listening habits.
IMO what we need now is not more digital music platforms, but new digital music infrastructure. Something artists can build on top of and create their own rules. Unfortunately, the MP3 feels clunky and outdated, partly because no one builds on top of it anymore. The ecosystem was mostly abandoned because of the rise of streaming. Despite Bandcamp being the most artist friendly way to support an artist’s music directly, most people aren’t listening to the music they buy using the downloaded MP3’s. It's just a folder of files with a PDF that sits on your hard drive with no easy way to listen.
So how about a new open standard specifically for the album? A single file that contains the album experience: music, artwork, and liner notes. A single file that anyone can build a player (or any idea) on top of. Something that makes owning a digital album feel more “real” because of the experience it can provide.
What is .alb?
An .alb file is simply a ZIP archive with a specific structure inside. Audio files in one folder, artwork in another, liner notes and any other documents in a third. A JSON file at the root that defines everything: the track order, the credits, the metadata, links to wherever the label lives online.
.alb Player and Maker
Sample .alb file
This is just a rough proof of concept (though there are color themes and EQ built in!). The player and maker are HTML files to use in your browser. This means there’s currently no persistent library and you will have to load .alb files into the player every time you open it. But you’ll get the idea.
I would love any thoughts, ideas, help on this project, especially from those more technical than myself. I see the first steps as finalizing the specs for what's included in the .alb format, and then creating a standalone app versions of the player and maker.
If anything, this has been a fun reason to dust off my old mp3 collection and listen digitally to albums I own again.
Before streaming, no corporation or entity owned the medium that albums used. Vinyl, cassette, CD, and the MP3 were open standards. The base layer that the music industry was built on top of was fair ground, while today the industry is built on top of tech platforms who get to shape the rules, as well as our listening habits.
IMO what we need now is not more digital music platforms, but new digital music infrastructure. Something artists can build on top of and create their own rules. Unfortunately, the MP3 feels clunky and outdated, partly because no one builds on top of it anymore. The ecosystem was mostly abandoned because of the rise of streaming. Despite Bandcamp being the most artist friendly way to support an artist’s music directly, most people aren’t listening to the music they buy using the downloaded MP3’s. It's just a folder of files with a PDF that sits on your hard drive with no easy way to listen.
So how about a new open standard specifically for the album? A single file that contains the album experience: music, artwork, and liner notes. A single file that anyone can build a player (or any idea) on top of. Something that makes owning a digital album feel more “real” because of the experience it can provide.
What is .alb?
An .alb file is simply a ZIP archive with a specific structure inside. Audio files in one folder, artwork in another, liner notes and any other documents in a third. A JSON file at the root that defines everything: the track order, the credits, the metadata, links to wherever the label lives online.
.alb Player and Maker
Sample .alb file
This is just a rough proof of concept (though there are color themes and EQ built in!). The player and maker are HTML files to use in your browser. This means there’s currently no persistent library and you will have to load .alb files into the player every time you open it. But you’ll get the idea.
I would love any thoughts, ideas, help on this project, especially from those more technical than myself. I see the first steps as finalizing the specs for what's included in the .alb format, and then creating a standalone app versions of the player and maker.
If anything, this has been a fun reason to dust off my old mp3 collection and listen digitally to albums I own again.
