Steve Bartels, chief operating officer of Island Def Jam, a unit of the music giant Universal Music Group, said the early availability of hot singles online could hurt albums of consistent quality throughout.
"If you know you have something of depth, you have to be careful about how you bring it into the marketplace," he said. "We're in the business of having consumers believe in an artist. If everything is up and gone before you have a chance to listen to the album, what do you have?"
Bartels added, however, that decisions to hold back singles are being made on a case-by-case basis, and could vary widely depending on genre. He noted that the label is already selling a single from the rock band Damone, even though its album is not expected in stores until May.
Elsewhere, however, as consumers shift into a world dominated by singles, custom playlists and iPod song shuffling, there are efforts under way to preserve the old-fangled album. Fans who are still willing to shell out for a full album are rewarded with exclusive bonus items: Universal Records recently offered a downloadable coloring book to fans who bought its Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson. And fans of the made-from-television band INXS who bought its full album received an exclusive bonus track.
Industry caution about early sales of singles, however, actually comes as fans are buying individual songs at such a rapid clip that they are -- for the first time -- regularly offsetting the decline in full album sales. So far this year, album sales have declined about 3 percent from a year ago. But if every 10 singles sold so far were bundled together and counted as albums, sales would be up about 2 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Even so, some music executives insist the "unbundling" of the album -- letting fans buy individual tracks -- still spells trouble.
Tony Brummel, the owner of the independent rock label Victory Records, says he is not inte-rested in selling individual songs from his albums, though he may give them away to build buzz. The label this week captured the No. 3 spot on the chart with the new album from the emo-rock band Hawthorne Heights. The band's CD sold about 114,000 copies -- a solid figure for an independent rock band, but somewhat less than expected given the label's shipments of roughly 800,000 copies. A rock album, Brummel said, "is a work of art."
"If you're buying a Picasso," he continued, "you can't just buy the upper right-hand corner."
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