Are we seeing the embers of the CD single?

Run DMC vs. Jason Nevins – It’s Like That. The very first single I bought, I’m quite proud of that fact. If you asked any kid under the age of say ten, what their first single was, what would they reply with?- “Erm… bought?” most probably. Sunday afternoons, 4 o’clock to 7 o’clock, The Official Top 40, was an important thing for me. Who would be there at the top? Where would the single I used my pocket money to buy, £3.99 of it as well, be? This, shamefully, appears long gone now though and music is certainly worse off for it.

Singles had multiple B-sides too. One of the best, simplest Stereophonics songs was a B-side, the little known In My Day. Arguably Oasis’ finest, most consistent album, The Masterplan, was made up entirely of B-Sides. You could argue this hasn’t changed, take Sawdust by the Killers, but why did they decide to release this? Because The Masterplan was so damn good and they figured they could replicate it, after a mere two albums. Nowadays, the average single will be likely include a live version, a remix or an un-thought out “acoustic” version, if that. Merely trading your acoustic guitar for an electric and playing the song exactly the same way does not constitute an “acoustic version”, this just means you picked up the wrong guitar. Most bands are culpable for this. The Enemy, love them or hate them seem to realise this, ‘You’re Not Alone’ acoustic, really is stunning, anyone with Incubus’ superb Make Yourself will soon notice they don’t seem to have cottoned on yet.

iTunes and the whole downloading market obviously have a lot to do with the demise of the CD single, but that’s for another day. The “free-single”, cue The Subways, Coldplay, Stereophonics et al, and going one, two, three, a hundred steps further, Radiohead, is hitting the breaking, not-so well off bands hard. There is nothing really they can do to compete, maybe release a 5 song EP as a single, spending a lot of their record companies money on something that will undoubtedly be illegally downloaded anyway. Few record companies are really going to facilitate this. It’s really is no wonder so many young, up and coming bands are breaking-up, Alterkicks, Mumm-Ra and Milburn to name but three.

The production of albums is sure to be cast into doubt next. Ash are already contemplating just releasing songs and no more albums from their own studio, lets just hope they keep this little concept their own, maybe they could patent it, truly become saviours of music in the truest of senses. Although who would really want to say this about Ash?