What an album is today is proving both an existential threat but also a creative opportunity for the music industry.

On the one hand, the DSPs are accelerating the disassembling of the album with their focus on playlists and singles; but on the other hand, they are offering ways to reframe the album as a body of work.

There were visual albums from the likes of Beyonce’ (both Beyoncé and Lemonade) as well as Frank Ocean (Endless). There have also been enhanced album “experiences” such as what Spotify did last year on the Billie Eilish Experience, an interactive take on her debut album, as well as assembling the Love Taylor, Lover Enhanced Album playlist to push Taylor Swift’s Lover album. Now add to that list the “lookbook” Spotify has created for Bad Bunny’s Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana album.

A lookbook is used in the fashion world to show off a designer’s new collection and is distributed to media and retail for marketing purposes. Here Spotify used the concept to show off the Puerto Rican rapper’s strong visual aesthetic across a series of shots structured around five songs and storylines from his album. The different looks were created by Mexican stylist Nayeli De Alba and Storm Pablo (who is Bad Bunny’s personal stylist) and they even entered the real world with two physical displays in different parts of New York the day of the album’s release (29th February).

All the acts mentioned above are massive – with Bad Bunny being number five in Spotify’s most-streamed acts of 2019, putting him ahead of even Taylor Swift. Handing acts the tools to give their albums a visual impact that goes far beyond the sleeve art is to be welcomed, of course. However, limiting such support to those who already have huge audiences and streaming numbers risks ushering in a new class system where the gap between the huge and the not-so-huge only widens.