The Death Of The UK Chart Single?

MUSIC INDUSTRY CRISIS: MY FIRST RECORD SET ME BACK 49P

By Billy Sloan

THE day I bought my first seven-inch pop single was a defining moment in my adolescence.

It was 1971 and I shelled out 49p of my holiday money for Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who at Woolworths in Rhyl, Wales.

It came in a blue sleeve featuring a shot of the group. I pored over it, reading every scrap of text on the label, from who produced the track to the location of the studio.

That single is a treasured part of my now vast, largely CD, record collection. I wouldn't part with it for a king's ransom.

It fills me with despair that for today's kids, buying their first single is no big deal.

The quality of a CD leaves vinyl for dead but shelling out for a single in 2004 doesn't have the same magic. A seven-inch vinyl disc IS a single. A CD is a metal ring in which a single has been pressed.

Few kids' pocket money won't stretch to buying an entire album so you can't blame them for shunning the single.

I understand why fewer kids buy singles these days. Why shell out £2.99 for one song when you can get an album for around a tenner?

micro-computer

vinyl is just a format, as is CD. i understand the romanticism attached to vinyl but come on, the only good thing about it is you get a larger sleeve and can muck about with them (DJing). CDs were never the right size (too big, too small) and it irks me. NO FORMAT for music is good for me. If you want it on CD why not burn it yourself to a disc filled with 80 mins or 700mb of other stuff and have them mail you some quality artwork

I understand why fewer kids buy singles these days. Why shell out £2.99 for one song when you can get an album for around a tenner?

contradiction there as well surely.

Few kids' pocket money won't stretch to buying an entire album

[Only a] few kids don't get enough money to buy albums...

Clumsily phrased, admittedly.

But Billy Sloan, yes.

Rock profits and boogie woogie blues

By Kristan Deconinck
BBC World Service business reporter

Fifty years ago, the seed of a revolution was sown which proved to be the catalyst for a multi-billion dollar industry.

On 12 April 1954 an overweight "singing cowboy" called Bill Haley went into a studio in New York and recorded a more raucous version of (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock than his previous country-flavoured attempt.

The song didn't make much impact until it was featured in the film Blackboard Jungle a year later - but soon afterwards it was topping charts all over the world and opening up a new genre of entertainment.

The music industry grew into a $40bn sector at its peak in 1996.

That figure has since fallen by almost 25%, bringing forth the question; Has the bubble of prolific profits finally burst?

Global phenomenon

An increasingly affluent post-war generation couldn't get enough of the new rebellious Rock 'n Roll and record companies were quick to cash in on the popularity of artists such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry.

Initially an American concept which spawned pale imitations in other parts of the world, the musical schism between the generations went truly global with the advent of the Beatles.

Young people had money to spend and record companies made sure that a large part of their income was spent on buying records.

The money men moved in, and people like Brian Epstein managed the Beatles to ensure they maximised their earning potential.

Instead of being an artefact that you picked up after hearing it being played on radio, records became marketable commodities just like soap powder and baked beans - and record companies kept up the pressure by devising new ways of promoting the product.

There was the introduction of the 45 rpm record, the EP, stereo recordings, picture discs, cassettes, and compact discs, whilst the launch of MTV in 1981 produced an upsurge in music videos which led ultimately, to the DVD.

This strategy led to the prominence of the album in the 1970s and some bands, such as Led Zeppelin, ignored the singles market completely.

Decline and fall

The industry was at its peak in 1996 with global sales in the region of $40bn and companies merged to become even bigger conglomerates on the world stage.

For a while it looked as though the money-spinning machine would continue to produce huge profits, but things started to go horribly wrong. Popular music is no longer the concern of adolescents in the way it was in the 1960s and 1970s

Simon Warner, Senior Teaching Fellow Leeds University

The sales of singles declined and other forms of entertainment began to erode the record companies' stratospheric profits.

Furthermore, new technology enabled people to download music from the internet, therefore by-passing the need to actually purchase the record.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, global sales for 2003 were at their lowest ebb - generating just $32bn, a drop of over 7%.

You can now store an entire music collection on a hand-held gadget
During the last eight years, there has been a drop in global earnings of almost 25% - which record companies blame on massive counterfeiting and downloading music from the internet.

Are we therefore looking at the death throes of a once invincible industry?

Simon Warner, senior teaching fellow in pop music at Leeds University, thinks not:

"In a multi-media age at a time when the internet is booming and mobile phones are the main teen obsession, popular music is no longer the concern of adolescents in the way it was in the 1960s and 1970s," he said.

But he believes that the entertainment corporations and media businesses which dominate the industry, although reeling from the impact of illegal downloading, will have the ability to bounce back.

"In recent decades the industry has faced threats from cassette tapes, videos and computer games and they have always found a means to exploit the waves of technical change that feature in this sector," he adds.

what's he pickin' on the Stills for? is this some kind of O'Reilly-related anti-Canadian ricochet backlash?

Which is a bit shit really, cos it means the days of buying a 40 minute version of Blue Room or half a dozen mixes of Prix Choc for a couple of quid are now behind us. Bastard Gallup.

I like this.

The £2.99 (plus!) cdep. One track as side a, and a number of remixes and stuff. These are usually dull. Occasionally, a good e.p. if the band/artist is actually involved.

The DVD single. I like them occasionally.

"hey Billy Sloan
Sitting on your own
do you think you've found the neeeew deacon bluuuuee"

i dont entirely see why the new chart countdown should be moved from sunday to friday just because music might now be released on a friday instead of monday. surely that would mean the countdown should be on a thursday instead?

Ah, "Video Singles", for so long they were a thing of the future.

Then, "VHS Singles", not quite there, still to be in the future then.

Then, "DVD singles" yep. Then suddenly they were over.

And now they are a thing of the past.

Singles have been released on Sunday for a while now (to get a full week of chart sales), so it does make sense as carrying things over.

How good is A.I. at creating chart hits? Trained a neural network (in Torch) on the history of the UK charts and let it come up with its own Top 40. Good to see a mix of genres. #aitop40 pic.twitter.com/hJLdWmbssz

— Bob De Caux (@BobDeCaux) March 5, 2020

love that

definitely feeling 'mind slug'

And it seems to me, you lived you life
like a chonter in the wind.
Never knowing who to claim to
when the rynts set in.

I see an ILX Compilation in this

ILX compilation to make these real, pls.

lol xp

xp cosign

wasn't 'she don't get off the line' the follow-up to starnin's wretched debut single 'your momma's always chasin' the troop trains'?

Baggsy "The Tory Sound"

I'll claim 'For The Sour'.

How did Bobson Dugnut not get a top 40 hit?

No danger whatsoever in letting AI run our world.

"Shower, Don't" !

ahah "Bat Love"

Except it should be by Sandy Bats !

I, UM