Remember the time, way back, when you still bought CDs at music stores? Remember when you were running to get Radiohead's Hail To The Thief and you did a double-take at that random string tribute album for OK Computer? As random as it may have seemed at the time, tribute albums have once again turned into big business for the handful of labels savvy enough to capitalize on the trend.

Tribute albums are nothing new. They've been produced in some form or another since the 60s. And yeah, there's always the cover band. But cover bands are more about hearing the music live, and older tribute albums seemed to exhalt the work contained within. They've never served as the blatant grab for cash that they've become today. Instead of true tribute albums to artists who have produced works that are loved and respected, anyone with any sort of marketing hype behind them will have a tribute album in their name.

It all started in 1999, when Vitamin Records commissioned musician Todd Mark Rubenstein to work on the String Quartet Tribute to Led Zeppelin album. 11 years later, Vitamin Records alone has spawned over 200 compilation CDs, with tributes ranging from Tool, to Enya, to Animal Collective. And it's not just string tributes either. You can find Piano, Dub, Surf, Lounge and Swing tributes (among others) to an interminable list of artists. When you factor in the copycat labels who do the same thing (one label is actually called Copycats), and your head starts to spin. How do so many of these exist?

Tribute albums seem to have evolved from covering all-time classic albums and artists, to now serving as a more reactionary vehicle to profit from a hot artist. For example String Quartet Tributes exist for flashes in the pan such as James Blunt and Hoobastank. Most recently, tribute albums for chart toppers such as Ke$ha and Owl City have either been released or announced…on multiple labels.

But it's not all bad. There are tribute albums, and then there are tribute albums. Respected tribute albums generally take a classic album or band, and enlist established artists to pick their favorite tracks. This is where Beck's Record Club projects fall, rounding up his friends to recreate full albums as loving homage to the artists who've influenced them.

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Some people even manage to come up with some original ideas that are entertaining. Last year, Andy Baio released an 8-Bit tribute to Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue, calling it Kind Of Bloop. And as you might guess, the album is a note-by-note recreation of the classic album, using sounds you'd otherwise find trapped in the classic Nintendo Entertainment System. 


One could even look at critically-acclaimed mash-up albums like The Grey Album and Nastradoomus by Danger Mouse and MF Doom, respectively, as a sort of tribute album. In both cases, the artists are taking original source material, and reinterpreting the production behind the lyrics. Danger Mouse, of course, took all his samples from The Beatles' White Album and dropped the lyrics from Jay-Z's Black Album on top.

But back to Kind Of Bloop: when Baio originally just wanted to release the project as a free download, he ran into legal troubles after posting it, and was forced to charge for the project to cover licensing fees.

This seems to indicate two things: 1) that there are no loopholes for the professional labels out there pumping these albums out, meaning they have to license their music just like Baio. 2) There's money to be made in selling these things if a single label is willing to license 200 CDs worth of material. A USA Today story from 2005 has an industry veteran on record as saying you can generate decent revenues off small expenses. Hello, profit!

But the mystery still remains, who buys these things? Common sense would seem to indicate that band nerds, and those who used to rock hard decades ago would be the ones most into something like this. But as of publish, no labels or people involved with the project were willing to talk, so there's nothing to quantitatively substantiate that idea.

But the proof is still in the pudding: these albums don't seem to be crafted out of love and appreciation. They may take advantage of a consumer's sense of nostalgia, but in the end, it's all about money. Tribute albums have carved out their own profitable niche in the music industry and are here to stay.

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