Muse’s Matt Bellamy says albums are ‘almost meaningless’ in age of iTunes and Spotify

Bellamy argues, however, that concept albums are more important than ever

Muse‘s Matt Bellamy has said that technological advances in music, most notably iTunes and Spotify, have made albums “almost meaningless.”

Bellamy, who releases Muse’s new album ‘Drones’ in June, is confident however that the concept album will endure and that it is in a healthier position than ever before.

“Apple, iTunes and streaming services have made the single a more easy thing to access,” Bellamy told Rolling Stone. “What that’s done has made the album as a collection of songs almost meaningless. But an album that has a concept or story or reason to be an album, if anything, has more meaning now than it ever has.”

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Speaking about ‘Drones’, itself a concept album, Bellamy explains how being able to play every song live was what motivated the band and informed their songwriting.

“Our intention was to go back to how we made music in the early stages of our career,” said Bellamy, “when we were more like a standard three-piece rock band with guitar, bass and drums.”

“We probably spent more time in the control room, fiddling with knobs and synths and computers and drum machines than actually playing together as a band,” he says. “As I look back at the last three albums, each one had progressively less and less songs that we could play live.”

Speaking to NME in this week’s issue, available digitally and on newsstands now, the band’s bassist Chris Wolstenholme discusses Muse’s forthcoming headline set at Download Festival, suggesting that they’ll play rare tracks and heavier material.

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