Album Apps: A New Musical Album Format and the Influence of Open Works

Since 2011, the term “album app” has been used more frequently by journalists in the music and technology fields. It refers to a new album format that at first seemed an invitation to improvisation; one could re-create a musical piece while listening to it. The result is that the roles of composing, performing and listening become nearly indiscernible in the album app context. The author also discusses the album app’s relationship to “open works,” a term that was coined and investigated by Eco in 1959, a period that disposed of different technologies to apply very similar statements.