Bye bye physical singles

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.

.........
..........

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?