Bye bye physical singles

Whatever side you're on, one thing is being lost out on here: the B-side.

nonsense - this is an era when every tossed-off demo a band lays down in the studio gets leaked to the internet within weeks - don't worry you'll all still get your nine-minute "experiments"!

anyway i believe they call b-sides "itunes bonus tracks" now

i'm surprised cd singles are still selling that many tbh. who are those 42 weirdos buying them? jewel case fetishists?

Our local Fopp generally has 3 or 4 new release 7"s on display, one of this week's being the "Elephant Stone" re-issue. Within the past 6 months or so, our local HMV has basically chucked out the remainder of its singles section, save for a small display rack that stocks, I dunno, maybe 15 titles? The only CD singles I've acquired this year have been promos, and my last 7" purchase was about 6 months ago. But still, these sales figures were a shock...

promo cd singles need to diiiiie, clogging up my room to no purpose at all. SEND ME AN MP3.

not surprised reissues like the roses are still selling as physical 7s though - people only seem to want physical copies of old stuff. all the rules about how they would and wouldnt qualify for the charts prob didnt help but i never liked cd singles that much anyway - they looked crap and half the time people put way too much material on them. (but then people did that with the 12"s too. recent clearing out a load of my vinyl, i realised that unless the cover was nice, i didnt really have much use for a lot of singles unless it had something special on the b-side. not deejaying anymore, i dont have much use for instrumentals and acapellas etc)

Considering that the CD single was something that *no one at all* held any affection for in the first place, I'm not sure why this is even a big deal. The vinyl single, which people still do care about, will survive.

"nonsense - this is an era when every tossed-off demo a band lays down in the studio gets leaked to the internet within weeks - don't worry you'll all still get your nine-minute "experiments"! "

otm. you get more than you ever got with b sides now. (for better/much much worse)

Still like a few of the "here's 8 different mixes of the same song" CD singles before the chart rule change, my copies of "Fly Life" and "Prix Choc" are nice.

I liked CD singles!

And I'm not after 9-minute experiments, Lex; most of the b-sides listed in the Stylus article are wicked SONGS, not formless jams (Set The Ray To Jerry!).

Yeah, I think that was the point: The classic "OMG This b-side is worth playing a lot", um, b-side.

I miss the Monday lunchtime sweep through the new releases, grabbing them while they were still cheap.

my point still holds for "wicked songs" as well as 9-minute experiments, nick

Considering that the CD single was something that *no one at all* held any affection for in the first place, I'm not sure why this is even a big deal.

The fact that the story we're linking to is on Teletext sort of implies that it isn't (as well as carrying lol irony perhaps)

I've not come across many wicked songs as iTunes bonus tracks, and I want them on CD anyway, god damnit.

I fucking loved Teletext music pages pre-internet. Making a fanzine and writing aggro letters to Planet Sound was what I did pre ILM and Stylus.

I'm resisting the temptation to caricature this as "lol Southall misses another useless thing from the 90s" but... what exactly did you like about them? The boxes were always thin and flimsy, the sleeves usually half-arsed, generic or just plain ugly, and the b-sides and remixes aren't really going anywhere.

I want them on CD anyway, god damnit

no u don't - by ur own admission u haven't bought one in 2 yrs

itunes bonus trax (or leaks, whatever) are THE SAME songs that would be b-sides

also u can burn mp3s to cd if u really want to

Thought you meant Teletext then for a second...

What did I love about CD singles? Same as CD albums over vinyl; convenience (not having to flip), sound (no fuzz), the physicality of actual CDs - I think they're beautiful, more so than vinyl.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3717675682_e6b49f3ee1.jpg

I hope Jonesy doesn't mind me posting his image here from Flickr!

I'm nowhere near as "lol I miss the 90s' bad as Enrique.

X-post; I've not bought them cos I've not seen any (new ones) to buy; I've hoovered up loads of old EPs and singles on CD via ebay, to get hold of songs I already had as files.

It's about the context; yes, it's a it crate-diggerish, which I don't imagine you identify with, but there's something about having a song you love hidden and a bit inaccessible that makes it a bit more precious; you don't play it as often, it doens't wear out in your affection, you cherish it more.

you've been PAYING MONEY to acquire music you ALREADY HAVE.

.........
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your last sentence doesn't make a jot of sense either

Another person here who love(s/d) CD singles. Funny that "Set the Ray to Jerry" was mentioned - I think back fondly on buying that single at a Tower Records and having this epiphany ("wow, this is even better than the songs on the album!") that set off lots of single buying in the hopes of coming across another little-heard gem that I could put on mix tapes and wow friends. As an incorrigible ephemerist/completist/fetishist (and yes, nostalgist), they're sort of the perfect thing.

(all that said, I can see why they're irrelevant now - I just had to point out that the comment that "no one" ever had any "affection" for them is utter b.s.).

Nick that photo is cuet but whoever set it up loved those CDs so much they had to DESTROY them DYS

Considering that the CD single was something that *no one at all* held any affection for in the first place, I'm not sure why this is even a big deal. The vinyl single, which people still do care about, will survive.

― Matt DC

This is pretty much exactly what I was coming here to post, only it seems that some people do hold an affection for it. Although MVC's description seems to fit 'physical single' more than 'CD single', and is only the latter by accident of era, perhaps?

Oi, cheeky!

I happen to know that everyone of the CDs in my photo is actually a copy of Midtown Madness for Windows ME.

i liked CD singles

you've been PAYING MONEY to acquire music you ALREADY HAVE.

.........
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your last sentence doesn't make a jot of sense either

― lex pretend, Wednesday, July 15, 2009 11:14 AM (1 hour ago)

Yep; sometimes paying for it twice; once off itunes and again later on CD if I like it. I don't expect you to understand. But you know how you like getting paid to write?

I didn't expect you to get the last sentence either, YOU GOT NO HEART, TINMAN, and no staying power, either. You're like gossamer.

Look over there, a shiny thing!

A gossamer tin man?

Lex, not everyone gets promos. But I haven't bought a cd single in years and years. I'd rather buy a 7" ,10" or 12" single.
Most of the bands I like dont release cd singles.

I do have maybe 700+ cd singles from the 90s though, back when i did collect singles by bands I liked AND 99p singles of bands i hadnt heard yet that i checked out (pre-internet days) just because it was cheap.

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.

^^^
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.

I give you the digital 45.

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.

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.

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.

Not that you are wrong, but do you cheer on the death of the book industry in the same manner?

no one is publishing anything worthwhile anymore, and libraries aren't going anywhere, so...

hunting for cd singles from the early 90s is one of my fav. record store activities.

Not that you are wrong, but do you cheer on the death of the book industry in the same manner?

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.

(As an aside: anyone shed a tear for the demise of the floppy disk? No, didn't think so. Commodity fetishisation is frankly absurd.)

Commodity fetishisation is frankly absurd

^^needs reposting all over the internet tbh

Oh, it is absurd. But that doesn't mean that everyone will feel the same thing about commodities disappearing.

(xpost)

Something touched me deep inside
The day CD singles died

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.

Lex, your whole schtick is commodity fetishisation, it's just that your commodity is ululating women rather than CDs.

bye bye ululating women

i think you're confusing "music taste" with "commodity fetishism" there nick

and "ululating women" with "skanky ass hoes"

ululating skanky ass hoes, for preference

im just waiting for when its Bye Bye Hard Drives.

I'm just waiting for the day I can have a little chip in my head, with everything streaming to it.

At once.

squeeze that spotify...

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.

no one is publishing anything worthwhile anymore, and libraries aren't going anywhere, so...

what??

in the future they'll have music pills! that you can eat! all of the 18th century will taste like cinnamon raisin bagels!

Fucking hate cinnamon.

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.

Just yesterday we were mocking Teletext and now RIP big man.

The other annoying thing about CD singles was the lack of a decent spine, meaning finding them in your collection was an arse.

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

I miss floppy discs.

Especially the really big, 5" ones that were actually floppy.

I remember 7" ones, ooerfnarr-etc...

Never was a seven inch floppy. They dropped from eight inches to five and a quarter.

http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/59119/projects/164212/591191230982992.jpg

I know the feeling, etx...

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?

i miss 3" cd singles. those seemed right. i still have some prince batdance one in a batshaped case somewhere.

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.

I miss:

3" CD singles, they made sense.

Wait, thats what I thought this whole thread was about. Are people talking about regular sieze cds with 2-3 songs on?