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Icelandic musician Björk recently released what she claims to be the world's "first app album." It's an iPad and iPhone app featuring 10 songs, each song accompanied by an interactive app. The "mother" app is called Biophilia, which is the name of the album. That is available free on iTunes, but the 'song' apps then cost $1.99 each and are bought from within the main app. The first song, 'Cosmogony,' is included free. So far two other songs have been released: the first single 'Crystalline' and a song called 'Virus.'

I checked out Biophilia this evening, depositing $3.98 into Björk's App Store account for the first two paid songs. I'm a fan of Björk already and have a number of her earlier albums. Other than the music, what impresses me about this album is her inventiveness in coming up with a brand new album format - the "app album." Plus she finds a new way to make money from her music. Both are achievements in a music era where albums and revenue have been under attack due to the Internet.

Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke announced that the band will no longer release full-length studio albums and instead focus on downloadable singles. In response, Fast Company's Kit Eaton, declared that the concept of albums is still alive and simply evolving. Part of that evolution is Apple's Cocktail interactive album effort. He argues that albums maintain their purpose to communicate musical themes, "the same way that a curated collection of a painter's works does". Nevertheless, it may be that in some cases, the album will thrive for the exact opposite reasons.