Speaking of the music industry

[andrewducker]

How do "singles" work nowadays?  You used to get the release of multiple singles from an album - but the physical singles market seems to have died in the UK, it's all digital nowadays.

So who is going to wait until a particular date to buy their favourite tracks from an album when they can buy them the second the album comes out?  And do all of these count towards the singles charts?  If an album by the new big thing comes out could it occupy the entire top ten?

And is this why the album chart is doing so badly?  Because people just cherry-pick the tracks they like?

Edit: I'm wrong about the album charts - they still seem to be doing fine.

Comments

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

TBH, I still buy albums. I like having a physical object, the cover art, the inserts, something tangible.

On top of that, I think albums - certainly in my preferred genres of music - are meant to be heard and played as a complete thing. If you cherry-pick tracks then you're missing some of the creativity that went into crafting the artform that is an album.

Then again, half my music is prog concept-albums or black metal with 25 minute tracks so I'm well aware I'm definitely in the minority here :)

[andrewducker]

Absolutely. My music may be entirely listened to in MP3 format, but I pretty much always listen to it an album at a time.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Does the pricing model for buying these as mp3s break things? Ditto for, say, Napalm Death's Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration or the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

It seems not. For example: Transatlantic's SMPTe is an album by a prog-supergroup with tracks of 30, 16 and 17 minutes on it. Only the short 5-minute tracks can be bought individually otherwise you have to buy the whole album as a download item for £7.99.

Napalm Death's Punishment in Capitals does have all 28 songs at 70p each but then if you're willing to pay that rather than £6.95 for the album, they'll be more than pleased to accommodate you.

So yes, it seems it breaks it slightly if you're dumb enough to pay for short tracks, but they won't let you get the long ones on the cheap.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Singles don't work nowadays. The singles chart has become meaningless since about the start of the 1990's. That was the point the record companies started to manipulate it to ensure more and more songs got to No. 1 even if it was only for 1 week. This was before downloads, but they discovered that by selling all singles at half price for the first week only they could pretty much guarantee a song would go straight to No. 1 the first week it was released. They also colluded with each other, releasing certain songs in different weeks, to ensure each got to the top spot.

I remember listening to the charts as a kid, waiting to see where particular records would be that week. Going straight in at No. 1 was almost unheard of, people bought songs they heard on the radio so singles would climb the charts as the record's popularity grew. Part of the fun was wen rival bands would release songs simultaneously and we would tune in to see which was higher up the chart. Once that stopped the chart became meaningless.

I don't actually know how the album chart is compiled. Do you have to download all tracks from an album to count as a single sale or just a certain percentage?

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

For singles, most of them are either
a) released before the album (and pre-released a month or more before on the radio to build momentum) or
b) packaged with non-album material (three remixes, a "live" version and a "not on the album" track)

and the rest are spikes from the death of an artist, the song being used in a popular TV show or movie, or just getting a lot of rotation on Radio 2 and so encouraging people to buy a copy for themselves.

Why would you buy a "favourite track" from an album if you own the album? You wouldn't (at least *I* wouldn't) ... but you might buy one, two or three tracks as you heard them on the radio etc. and then decide to buy the rest of the album (I think iTunes calls that CYA (Complete Your Album) where you get credit for the single tracks you've bought)

Yes, an album could occupy the entire top ten if people were buying the individual tracks ... I assume something like that was happening to the Michael Jackson greatest hits albums the weeks after his death.

[andrewducker]

"packaged with"? How does that work digitally?

And you'd buy a favourite track because you'd heard it at a friend's place. Pretty much all the music I own was first heard when someone else played it at me.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't go to as many friends' places as you do ... most of the new music (new to me) I hear is while driving, on streaming audio stations, in TV/Film soundtracks or on TV music stations (MTV, Kerrang, VH1 etc.), or on iPlayer while working ... the rest is speculative downloads of torrents or from sites like highqualitymp3.net, and occasionally a recommendation from someone by email or LJ.

Basically I don't buy downloaded music. If I like something I will order the physical CD, possibly in parallel to downloading a not-paid-for digital version.

Don't know how "packaged with" would work digitally, but you can still buy CD singles and they still count towards the charts
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/navigate.do?ctx=1000;-1;-1;-1;-1&pPageID=1004&WT.ac=A_WEBSITE_HOME_PAGE_MAG-LHTMN-Chart_Menu-hmv+singles+chart

The three I checked all had the main track, plus at least one remix.

[andrewducker]

It seems that you can buy physical CD singles - but that people don't:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Singles_Chart#The_Internet_Age
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/report-yep-cd-sales-keep-falling-but-new-trends-may-help.ars

Albums still seem to be largely CD based, but as far as I can tell singles are largely MP3 nowadays. Still trying to find exact figures on that though.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

It appears to vary by single ... some have no physical release, but most still have a physical option.

[blearyboy.livejournal.com]

"Packaged with": basically if you look on itTunes you'll see singles listed, which are really just subfolders with 3 or 4 tracks. Sometimes you get them cheap if you buy them all together

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

I still buy singles for my favorite groups, because 1) sometimes the singles come out before the albums and I am impatient, and 2) singles have b-sides, which I love.

[blearyboy.livejournal.com]

If you buy a track, it counts as a single sale. The song doesn't have to be designated as a single on current release, or even a single.

This is why the charts are so mental at the moment, resembling a random playlist. Recent example: some bloke sang "Sex On Fire" on X Factor a couple of weeks ago. Next week, it was in the charts at number 6