For those too lazy to click it...
"High street chain Woolworths has said it will stop selling CD singles in its stores.
The group said that the format was in "terminal decline" and will be removed from the shelves from August.
Sales of CD singles have fallen sharply as the popularity of downloading music from the internet has increased.
However, it will continue to stock one-off releases, such as the X Factor winner, which the retailer says still sells hundreds of thousands of copies.
Sales plunge
Figures show that this year sales are a third of what they were in 2007 and the market is less than a sixth of what it was eight years ago.
78 million CD, tape and vinyl singles were bought in 1999 - the height of the physical single's popularity - but this fell to only eight million CD singles in 2007.
Jim Batchelor, Woolworths commercial director, said: "Digital downloading is now the true customer choice for listening and purchasing single music tracks.
"CDs are alive and well for album sales, but unfortunately the physical singles market is in terminal decline."
Woolworths is the UK's biggest singles' retailer and has already reduced availability in half its 820 stores.
The company has now shifted its focus to downloads and this week launched a revamped site covering music, games, video and mobile content."I always remember, as a kid, hearing a song on the radio and thinking to myself; "I REALLY want to buy that song!". Obviously when I was a kid, the internet was merely only beginning to start, and the only thing you could only really do was email and surf some sites. But still, I think this is kinda sad. Singles always provided you with a taster of what albums might sound like; and always had interesting B-sides or sometimes 2 single CD editions with different things within each single, such as different artwork, poster, B sides, or maybe exclusive videos or something. But now with the internet, like they said, it's made the physical single absolutely in decline.
Whilst I'm a complete supporter of internet downloading, I feel somewhat that you miss something special with singles. You miss, to be an audiophile, the lossless quality of the song. Whilst the average music listener wouldn't notice the difference, for those who want the whole experience, songs may not have the same "punch" as they would on a single, and I know for record labels they always want their singles to pack a punch so they stand out more on radio; which is why there is more compression in music today (well, not the only reason).
Environmentally, I guess it IS a good thing that singles aren't being released anymore. I do remember as a kid seeing bargain buckets for old singles, and thinking, "no-one is going to want old singles especially if they're out on compilation albums". It's going to save plastic on CD's and their cases and paper for the single inlay and back cover, rather than having them all just thrown away because the single didn't sell. At least now if people want to buy the single, they just buy the song itself, and artwork comes with it (if it has artwork).
I do think it's sad that future generations aren't going to be exposed to the "CD Single". Whilst now that I'm older and more musically aware and prefer albums to singles, I know that many people have a short musical attention span and just want to buy 1 song they like to hear and play it in their car or CD player at home or whatever, and unfortunately this won't be able to happen (unless they burn it to CD, of course!).
I'm guess I'm just don't like seeing things I grew up with being taken away from future generations, but hey, that's evolution and progress.
In other news, I'm celebrating my Duncreggan birthday tonight, and intend to get merry.
No comments:
Post a Comment