It’s time to face the music — especially how it’s being sold and gauged.

Just before Minnesota native and pop music icon Prince announced Beck’s “Morning Phase” as album of the year at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards, he made a simple, succinct statement that’s been largely overlooked since.

“Albums still matter,” he said. “Like books and black lives, albums still matter. Tonight and always.”

This was quickly forgotten after Kanye West’s latest awards show antics (he nearly stormed the stage and later called Beck unworthy of the award). But Prince’s “albums still matter” statement presents countless more interesting questions for the music industry than does West’s sizable ego.

That’s because for the first time ever, old or cataloged albums outsold new releases on iTunes in 2014, according a report by www.musicbusinessworldwide.com. In terms of physical albums, new albums narrowly outsold catalog albums in ‘14, but it still raises a myriad of questions for music fans and people in the music business.

Perhaps most prominently, it calls into question if album sales still matter as a measurement of success.

While I agree with Prince that “albums still matter,” I place little to no stock in album sales. That’s because online streaming services, most notably Spotify, have muddied the water to the point that the data is suspect at best.

Last week, for example, I listened to Father John Misty’s new “I Love You, Honeybear” several times. But I didn’t buy it. Since its release last year, I’ve listened to St. Vincent’s fantastic self-titled album several times. I haven’t bought it, either. Just a few years ago, I’d have purchased both by now. But today there’s really no reason for me to buy these albums, unless I want to add the vinyl versions to my collection.

Both albums are available on Spotify Premium, along with countless others, for about $10 a month. Many more people listen to such albums through the free version of Spotify and other web services like Amazon Prime.

Both albums successfully reached me, the fan, but neither success was tracked in the overly simplistic sales category. I did nothing to boost either album on the Billboard or iTunes charts. Yes, Spotify and Amazon Prime track data on listens, which inevitably make it back to labels and artists, but it’s not nearly as flashy and as prominent as reaching any top album chart.

For further proof of album sales’ fleeting importance, just look to the artists. U2 gave its album “Songs of Innocence” to millions of Apple customers for $100 million last year, and Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail” was given to a million Samsung phone users in 2013. Such techniques show artists’ efforts to make money outside of sales.

These partnerships also raise many questions with few easy answers. The U2-Apple partnership was widely criticized, and Spotify has widely faced criticism for paying artists too little.

While solutions for rewarding artists for their work won’t come easy, let’s hope less stock is placed in simple sales.