I think there are two main reasons why 60s artists were often so prolific:
Firstly, pre-Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper, the production process was much simpler. Secondly, many artists only got to the recording studio by being locked into some 3-albums-a-year record deal. The record sellers were dictating how many albums the artist had to make.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
Like rostasi says, it's different now. Back in the 70s and 80s I could listen to whatever albums I could afford, often secondhand ones, so getting them at the rate I did suited me, left me time to listen to them. Nowadays, with itunes, torrents, Spotify, all kinds of music sites (to say nothing of YouTube) you're hard pushed enough to listen to the albums you download, without asking for more. Some of my favourite artistes have released albums two or more years ago that I have yet to listen to. There's just too much, and in an oversaturated marketplace it makes little sense to shorten the release schedule and release even more product into the equation.
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The formats TH mentions have changed everything; artists have more freedom to upload material as and when they want and in fact, the way music is disseminated now means that "the album" may one day become as old-fashioned as the 78. In both cases the length of the music you hear was dictated by the technology of the time, but these days we can hear music of unlimited length. One extreme example is a piece of music that was especially "composed" to celebrate the Millenium and has been playing ever since, as far as I know. There's even a term for this kind of work; "Generative Music."
Something less rarified than Generative Music is the way we consume music. Whereas I was once a proud collector of albums, I now -like everyone else- have playlists and electronic files; there is no particular reason for YouTube clips and other electronic formats to be tied down to, or released as, albums. Years ago in an interview David Byrne suggested that artists might release music ad-hoc onto the internet, only putting it into "bundles of songs" if it suited the artist for some reason.
If that should be tl;dr :-
The album is a pleasing format that many of us grew up with, but it's going to become increasingly anachronistic imo. Don't be surprised if artists are already shifting away from it as their principal form of expression.