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An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.

The tracks on an album may be related by subject, mood or sound, and may even be designed to express a unified message or tell a story (as in the case of a concept album), or the tracks may simply represent a convenient grouping of recordings made at one time or place, or recordings whose commercial rights are controlled by a single record label. A group of audio tracks is considered to be an album if it has a generally consistent track list (often with minor differences or bonus tracks in different territories, or if the album is "reissued" at different times). An album may be released in a single format, such as on compact disc, or in multiple media formats, ranging from physical ones such as CDs, DVD audio, cassettes and vinyl records, to digital ones such as MP3 and AAC files or streaming audio.

The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78 RPM Phonograph disc records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album. The first collection of records to be called an "album" was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, released in April 1909 as a four-disc set by Odeon Records.[1][2] It retailed for 16 shillings — about £56 (US$101) in 2005 currency.

In 1948, Columbia produced the first 12 inch, 33⅓ RPM microgroove record made of vinyl.[1] With a running time of 23 minutes per side, these new records contained as much music as the old-style album of records and, thus, took on the name "album". For many years, the standard industry format for popular music was an album of twelve songs, originally the number related to payment of composer royalties.

Traditionally, an album ranged in duration from half an hour to an hour, depending on the genre and record...