Double album

A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium. Recording artists often think of double albums as being a single piece artistically; however, there are exceptions, such as John Lennon's Some Time in New York City (which consisted of one studio record and one live album packaged together), OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (effectively two solo albums, one by each member of the duo), and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium (which Disc 1 has half of the album and Disc 2 has the other half). Since the advent of the compact disc, albums are sometimes released with a bonus disc featuring additional material as a supplement to the main album, with live tracks, studio out-takes, cut songs, or older unreleased material. One innovation was the inclusion of a DVD of related material with a compact disc, such as video related to the album or DVD-Audio versions of the same recordings. Some such discs were also released on a two-sided format called DualDisc.

Depending on the media used, some releases were double albums in one format and single albums in another. For example, a gramophone record (vinyl LP) consisting of two discs of less than 80 minutes in total could be fit onto a single standard-length compact disc (CD). Other times, track order could vary between two different media by rearranging the tracks in one medium, or a more efficient use of space could be made; for example, reducing a double album in LP format to a single cassette tape.The First double disc hip hop album was released in 1996 by 2Pac which went on to sell 10,000,000 copies.

The same principles apply to the triple album, which comprises three units. Packages with more units than three are often referred to as a box set.