O the fortune I spent on UK import singles in the 90s: $10 a piece back then, but you had to have them (esp. b/c many UK indie bands of the time seemed to release some of their best material as b-sides). This got especially out of hand in the late 90s, when bands started putting out two or three versions of the same single.
― gayest flash mob pillow fight yet (Pillbox), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link
^^^I don't even want to know how much I spent on import singles back in my Brit-obsessed college days. I remember being more than a little miffed when the local store's import section bumped singles up from $9.99 to $11.99.
― the sideburns are album-specific (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 16:48 (fourteen years ago) link
I give you the digital 45.
― shaane, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 16:53 (fourteen years ago) link
What is even the point of those? It might make sense if there was some sort of discount for the pairing, unless most of those flips aren't available elsewhere on iTunes. Seems stupid to pay the same price you would for any other two tracks.
― the sideburns are album-specific (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 16:55 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm surprised cd singles are still selling that many tbh. who are those 42 weirdos buying them? jewel case fetishists?
This, and pretty much everything else Lex has said on this thread, OTM.
I'm wryly amused at people going OH NO, THE DEATH OF THE CD SINGLE ... I remember your spiritual predecessors (including me) making the same silly noises about vinyl a few years ago. You remember: vinyl 7"s? Those things that, umm, you can still buy all over the place? Yeh, them.
Also, a small but key point: if the death of the CD single, or music pressed in any other physical form, means not manufacturing/wasting a shitload of plastic then it can't happen a second too soon.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Nick you forgot about RINGLES
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0921673020070910
Each ringle is expected to contain three songs -- one hit and maybe one remix and an older track -- and one ringtone, on a CD with a slip-sleeve cover.
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Not that you are wrong, but do you cheer on the death of the book industry in the same manner?
― the sideburns are album-specific (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:04 (fourteen years ago) link
no one is publishing anything worthwhile anymore, and libraries aren't going anywhere, so...
― ian, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:12 (fourteen years ago) link
hunting for cd singles from the early 90s is one of my fav. record store activities.
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, I work in newspapers, so I'm well versed in the death of industries -- and in the suffering it causes to those who work in them. But yes, the point is exactly the same: it's the message, not the medium, that matters. And clinging to outdated media is ultimately fruitless.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:15 (fourteen years ago) link
(As an aside: anyone shed a tear for the demise of the floppy disk? No, didn't think so. Commodity fetishisation is frankly absurd.)
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
Commodity fetishisation is frankly absurd
^^needs reposting all over the internet tbh
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, it is absurd. But that doesn't mean that everyone will feel the same thing about commodities disappearing.
(xpost)
― the sideburns are album-specific (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Something touched me deep insideThe day CD singles died
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, it is absurd. But that doesn't mean that everyone will feel the same thing about commodities disappearing
Well, of course not! ILX the internet the world would be a substantially more boring place if we all agreed, etc. However: I do think some spectacular fucking bollocks is talked -- especially by bookish types -- that stands up to no real scrutiny at all.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Lex, your whole schtick is commodity fetishisation, it's just that your commodity is ululating women rather than CDs.
― Paint me blue and throw a blanket over my head (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 18:01 (fourteen years ago) link
bye bye ululating women
― Mark G, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 18:41 (fourteen years ago) link
i think you're confusing "music taste" with "commodity fetishism" there nick
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 19:14 (fourteen years ago) link
and "ululating women" with "skanky ass hoes"
― I'm a Matt...I'm a DC (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 19:19 (fourteen years ago) link
ululating skanky ass hoes, for preference
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 19:24 (fourteen years ago) link
im just waiting for when its Bye Bye Hard Drives.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 19:26 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm just waiting for the day I can have a little chip in my head, with everything streaming to it.
At once.
― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Wednesday, 15 July 2009 19:28 (fourteen years ago) link
squeeze that spotify...
― Mark G, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 20:39 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah if anything there are more b sides, offcuts and experiments-on-record around now than ever before. see the *SEVENTEEN* track florence and the machine demos and works-in-progress album that was sent out to DJs and radio stations late last year. a sum total of 7 of these have made it out onto the album/deluxe album and singles so far.
― piscesx, Thursday, 16 July 2009 01:40 (fourteen years ago) link
what??
― elan, Thursday, 16 July 2009 03:09 (fourteen years ago) link
in the future they'll have music pills! that you can eat! all of the 18th century will taste like cinnamon raisin bagels!
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 July 2009 09:50 (fourteen years ago) link
Fucking hate cinnamon.
― Hacer Trand (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 16 July 2009 09:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah I can't say I'm particularly saddened by this, the CD format never really seemed suited to singles and, yeah, they're pretty wasteful in that they use the same amount of plastic as an album-length disc. I must've bought 200 or so of the things over the years but I've pared my collection down to a handful now, mostly EPs or stuff I have a particular attachment to.
― Gavin in Leeds, Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Just yesterday we were mocking Teletext and now RIP big man.
― Desmond Decca Aitkenhead (Matt DC), Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:10 (fourteen years ago) link
The other annoying thing about CD singles was the lack of a decent spine, meaning finding them in your collection was an arse.
― Desmond Decca Aitkenhead (Matt DC), Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Teletext should survive solely to report on the demise of other wildly outmoded forms of technology/media etc, kind of like a late-00s fuckedcompany.com
― Pissed Jenas (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:16 (fourteen years ago) link
I miss floppy discs.
Especially the really big, 5" ones that were actually floppy.
― Violent In Design (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:17 (fourteen years ago) link
I remember 7" ones, ooerfnarr-etc...
― Mark G, Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Never was a seven inch floppy. They dropped from eight inches to five and a quarter.
― Violent In Design (Masonic Boom), Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:21 (fourteen years ago) link
http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/59119/projects/164212/591191230982992.jpg
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 July 2009 11:17 (fourteen years ago) link
I know the feeling, etx...
― Mark G, Thursday, 16 July 2009 11:21 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm sadder about the death of Teletext than I am this. What am I supposed to do in the morning before getting out of bed for breakfast now that I can't read video game reviews I don't care about followed by terrible music reviews?
― Akon/Family (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 16 July 2009 11:41 (fourteen years ago) link
i miss 3" cd singles. those seemed right. i still have some prince batdance one in a batshaped case somewhere.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:01 (fourteen years ago) link
though the best singles are obv 7"s, esp eps which play on 33.
I miss:
3" CD singles, they made sense.
DVD singles: The video, plus some offcut b-sides which may or may not have moving pictures. The best one being the "Books" Belle and Seb e.p.
― Mark G, Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Wait, thats what I thought this whole thread was about. Are people talking about regular sieze cds with 2-3 songs on?
― seagulls are assholes (Trayce), Thursday, 16 July 2009 23:03 (fourteen years ago) link