NME: Do traditional album cycles help or hinder artists?

NME's writers argue pro and contra of traditional album-tour-album cycle. So, contra: "Over the past few years artists have started to eschew these traditional album release schedules again, and it’s exciting! It’s boring being constrained by these rules, especially when it’s so easy to write, record and drop a song on Soundcloud in the course of the evening". And pro: "We owe our musicians time to create at a comfortable pace and respect the work we have, not what comes next. If greed takes over, we run the risk of endangering the the album format completely".