The album isn’t dead, it’s just changing shape. Again. Since its inception, the album format—and its accompanying marketing—has been forced to adapt to shifting technologies in order to stay relevant. The streaming era has already brought us newfangled twists like albums as playlists, albums as works in progress, and albums as super-long exercises in indulgence. Now, there’s another growing trend: Albums that are released in chunks.

This year, artists as musically varied as indie singer-songwriter Moses Sumney, pop-punk bandleader Hayley Williams, and country duo Maddie & Tae are dropping their new albums in two or more multi-song installments, each spaced out over months. With streaming more dominant than ever, putting out an album in parts could be a savvy way for artists to pursue their creative ambitions while catering to a commercial environment that’s defined by the neverending scroll.

Managers and labels who’ve taken the multi-part plunge tend to insist that it all begins with their artists’ visions. But some also acknowledge that serialized albums reflect the commercial reality of the Spotify era. “All of this comes down to streaming,” one indie label campaign manager tells me.

The trend of multiple EP-length records building into an album extends—and often coexists with—the recent industry practice of leading up to an album with an extended cascade of individual tracks, or the way a young rapper might generate excitement with a string of loosies. Releasing different parts of an album in chunks ideally keeps fans coming back, generating more streams than if the label had just put out a couple of singles and then the album. An extra street date also offers an extra chance to point listeners toward the music on streaming services, with more potential for playlist placements and homepage marquee takeovers.

As is the case with most music industry innovations nowadays, the multi-part album release strategy has roots in the world of rap. In July 2018, South Florida rapper Denzel Curry released his album TA13OO in three “acts” across three consecutive days, with each one meant to convey a different musical vision. Curry had the idea for a concept album, his managers Mark Maturah and Rees Escobar recall, and they all developed the three-part rollout in discussions with Curry’s label, Universal-affiliated Loma Vista. “You throw away the sort of ridiculous tradition of first-week streaming,” Escobar explains, referring to the industry’s focus on opening numbers, “and approach it in a more artistic way.” Then, in April of last year, Kevin Abstract of hip-hop group BROCKHAMPTON released his album Arizona Baby in three parts across three different weeks. Abstract has described the project as a coping mechanism: “I was just trying to make something that could help me get through my shit.”

Last spring, the multi-part strategy moved into the realm of indie rock, when the cultishly beloved singer-songwriter Bill Callahan released his latest album, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest, one vinyl-side-long batch of songs at a time across four weeks. The 53-year-old explained that his motivation behind the move was to combat the endless distraction of streaming: “I know from my own experience with streaming that it’s really tempting to—even if you’re enjoying the song—wonder what’s next and skip through it. So we wanted to sort of just roll the record out slowly.”

Callahan was on to something. At this point, millennials spend about 21 hours a week listening to music, according to the research firm MusicWatch—but they spend nearly double that amount of time watching TV and movies combined (not to mention all the other entertainment options in people’s lives, like podcasts, reading, and social media). “From an artist’s perspective, the distraction factor is really high,” says MusicWatch managing director Russ Crupnick. “And there’s so much on the streaming services themselves.” So pacing an album over a few months, with a coordinated social media campaign, could help artists grab listeners’ much-divided attention. Adds Crupnick, “Every study we do around social says the No. 1 thing fans want to hear about is new releases from their artists.”