Has The Humble Music Single Died A Death?

Written in 2014 for music Week (UK)

 

When I was a teenager a trip to Our price to buy the latest chart singles was a weekly occurrence. Be it a song I heard on the radio, a group I saw on Top Of The Pops (Yes I'm talking about the old days when top of the pops was the show to watch on Friday evenings) or just the latest Spice girls release there was always something. Back in those days singles were released frequently and it was an exciting time especially if it was a song you was waiting for. Weeks in advance of the release there'd be posters up on billboards, adverts in magazines and even TV adverts. Cassettes were priced at £1.99 (yes I said cassettes) and CD's were £2.99 or sometimes up to £3.99. This was the 80's and 90's long before Virgin Megastores, itunes and spotify.

Back in those days we could get excited about a latest single release, some were limited edition and what was even more fun was waiting hours on end to see the accompanying video on the music channels. Long before we had the luxury of youtube. 

Nowadays it's a different story. Our Price, Virgin Megastores and the humble cassette are no more. Unfortunately to many it looks like the single is heading the same way. A lot of mainstream artists do continue to release singles but these singles do not get the hype and excitement they used to. 

So what is the point in releasing singles if nobody gets excited about them? Well thats where your wrong because believe it or not people do still get excited by singles just not in the same way. Today it is mostly the fans of the artist who usually look forward to singles. They eagerly anticipate seeing the video, they want to buy the song especially if there is a wicked b-side with it. 

 

Singles have never been big money makers for the artist and are usually merely a promotional tool these days. If an artist can get a good radio station to air it frequently then the artist has greater exposure and reaches a new audience. These people will hopefully then legally buy the single, then the album and eventually go to a live show. So it does still pay to release singles. 

 

Technology has evolved. These days it is really not cost effective for an artist to release singles on CD. Instead most artists choose to release singles digitally on itunes. The low price on itunes for singles reflects the money saved in production of CD's. So has the humble music single died a death? I don't think it has, it has changed but the music industry as a whole has changed a lot over the last decade. In my opinion singles will be around as long as there is a market for them and lets face it if we didn't have singles we'd never get to hear about any artists would we? There'd be no songs on the radio, no hits. How would new and established bands reach new audiences and get the exposure they need? Think back how did you first discover your favourite act? I'm pretty sure it was a single you heard. So there you have it, there's life in the old single yet.