Pitchfork reports on an interview with possible artist of the decade Sufjan Stevens:
Thinking out loud, he said: "I definitely feel like 'What is the point? What's the point of making music anymore?' I feel that the album no longer has a stronghold or has any real bearing anymore. The physical format itself is obsolete; the CD is obsolete and the LP is kinda nostalgic. So, I think the album is suffering and that's how I've always created-- I work with these conceptual albums in the long-form. And I'm wondering, what's the value of my work once these forms are obsolete and everyone's just downloading music? And I'm starting to get sick of my conceptual ideas. I'm tired of these grand, epic endeavours, and wanting to just make music for the joy of making music and having it be immediate and nothing to do with the industry itself, which, y'know is suffering right now of course.
via pitchfork.com
This does not bode well for the 50 states project. But seriously, I think every artist reaches this existential crisis. There are a lot of different responses to it: John Lennon went on a three-year binge (the "lost weekend") then spent time reconnecting with his family.
However, I wonder if other musicians will feel similar crises of faith as a result of the migration to digital music and the continued atomization of music. I could see artists like Sufjan moving to a performance model (pioneered by the Grateful Dead) where the truly important thing becomes the concert, each one unique and experienced with the audience, but then packaged and distributed ex post to those who weren't fortunate enough to be there.
