Ash have announced that they are to cease releasing albums in the traditional way. Claiming the album format to be no longer relevant, the Northern Irish band intend to release 'singles', or single tracks to be downloaded when they are finished, avoiding the now-traditional long gaps between musical activity and the expensive marketing hoo-ha that currently surrounds long-playing releases.

Click below for MORE details and the further question: does this signal the long-threatened death of the album as we know it?

With the advent of new technology - and of course, the advent of illegal downloading - album sales are in a downward spiral.

“Marketing music in the traditional sense is becoming increasingly less financially viable,” say Ash, “It is now time to fully embrace the digital future of the music industry”. They claim their current album, Twilight Of The Innocents, will be the last of the old school – though they admit they envisage releasing 'compilations' of net-released tracks on the CD format.

Although their plan is admirably radical, it’s not a model that will work for everyone. The customary ‘standard’ length of an album was originally determined by the amount of music that could be held on two sides of a piece of vinyl rotating at 33 1/3 RPM. But it was a happy accident, with 40-45 minutes providing ample time for musicians to craft listening experiences that comprised a beginning, middle and end, delighting and challenging the listener without making exorbitant demands on his or her time.

With the advent of the 70-odd minute CD, technology continued to shape the way we listen. Artists started putting more not-as-good songs on their records and we started skipping tracks. Home-burnt CD compilations and iPods re-emphasised the joys of juxtaposition, and in 2007 digitally-delivered music appears to match our ever-decreasing attention spans and ever-expanding hard drives.

Ash’s mooted strategy suits long-established bands with mature, static fan bases, who can dribble out new releases on the Internet, safe in the knowledge that their fans will still snap them up. “The way people listen to music has changed,” says frontman Tim Wheeler. “With the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn't helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album.”

He prophesied: “We're the first band to do this, but I very much doubt we'll be the last.”

All very well for Ash – a great singles band arguably best over a sprint - but can this really be the beginning of the end for the album? For bands keen to concentrate on maintaining a live fan base, bypassing album production costs and harnessing the power of the Internet must seem an attractive option. But how will this affect future generations of fans – denied a tangible and coherent body of music from a particular artist at a particular time?

A hot topic of debate in the MOJO office, we’re turning it over to you. Death to the CD? Maybe. But death to the much celebrated and beloved entity that is The Album? That’s the question. Provide your answers below or on our message boards...