Dec 08 2008
Physical Singles’ Eventual Demise Began Decade Ago
Remember a time when physical singles actually were a viable market?
Well, more than ten years ago, record labels started releasing fewer and fewer of them, out of fear that they’d hurt album sales. Not sure where that logic was in the 30-plus years that the album and single (first on vinyl, then cassette, then CD) peacefully and successfully co-existed, but no matter.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, it was not unusual to glance at the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (which always had been a mix of airplay and sales information) and not find your favorite song. The reason being that if you couldn’t buy it as a physical single, it was not eligible to appear on the Hot 100. Huge hits like Fugee’s “Killing Me Softly,” No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” and Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn,” among many others, dominated the airwaves, but never appeared on the Hot 100 during their reigns.
Billboard was not ignorant to the not-so Hot 100, and took action by the end of 1998. First, the magazine expanded the Hot 100 Airplay panel to include all formats; prior, it had been mainstream top 40, rhythmic top 40, adult top 40, adult contemporary and modern rock stations. Now, urban, country, rock, Latin and other formats had a say in the outcome of the Hot 100.
Most importantly, tracks that were not available commercially (either in CD or vinyl form) became eligible to appear on the Hot 100, once they cracked the top 75 in airplay (such a rule later became null and void; if a track had enough airplay period to appear on the Hot 100, then it would).
For a time, there was an increase in the number of commercial singles, as the addition of sales for a title provided an advantage over airplay-only tracks. But, the increase didn’t last long, and soon, the Hot 100 was nearly interchangeable with the Hot 100 Airplay chart.
The next large charts shift came with the digital world in which we now reside. Sales of individual tracks at iTunes took off around 2004, and by early 2005, consumers’ choice again became an important component of the Hot 100 as digital sales became part of the mix. Nearly all tracks appearing on the chart could be purchased as a legal download, and, once again, we have a nice, competitive Hot 100.
(Album sales, in turn, have been declining steadily ever since, but that’s another story)
Believe it or not, some acts still release physical singles, but to negligible outcomes. Since 2000’s “Music,” Madonna, for instance, has released every one of her singles commercially, most of the time as CD maxi-singles. (Interestingly, she did not release her post-chart-change soundtrack hits commercially- 1999’s “Beautiful Stranger” and 2000’s “American Pie.”)
Her Madgesty’s last significant CD-maxi seller was 2002’s “Die Another Day,” which has scanned more than 200,000 units to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. By comparison, 2005’s top 10 “Hung Up” moved just under 50,000. On the digital side, however, “Hung Up” has sold nearly 1.1 million downloads. And this year, Madonna’s duet with Justin Timberlake on “4 Minutes” sold nearly 2.3 million digital singles, but less than 20,000 as a maxi-single. Hence, why most acts abandoned the physical single many years ago.
When Billboard made the ruling to allow airplay-only tracks to chart on the Hot 100, some people actually tossed some blame Billboard’s way for killing the commercial single. However, Billboard did what it had to do to represent best the most popular tracks in the country.
Sure, circa 2002-2004, the lack of a major sales factor made the Hot 100 rather uneventful, but by 2005, the arrival of digital sales reignited the charts. And, ever since, all has been right with the Hot 100.
Now, if U.S. radio would work on its issues with playing older artists, the Hot 100 would know no bounds. We’ll leave that for another day…
I wouldn’t say singles and albums co-existed peacefully for 30+ years. What we are seeing now is a return to a time like the 60s where singles and music shows rule the day, and albums are somewhat of an afterthough. Remember that artists like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash didn’t necessarily release albums 50 years ago. They released singles and made money off live shows. Even when albums were released, it was really just a single or two with some filler tacked on. Acts like The Beatles came along and made concept albums, and over time the album became as viable as singles (and then for a brief time early this decade truly overtook the single).
As we all know, though, music (like most things) is cyclical, so now we seem to be returning to how things were 50 years ago.
Good point, but I say “co-existed peacefully” because from the time the Beatles ushered in the albums era, it was a good 30+ years before releasing physical singles really became less and less of a practice. There were a handful of big airplay-only hits in 1994, but by 1997-1998, that number increased rather largely. I’m just glad we don’t have that problem now.
Notice how I said “nearly all” tracks now are available as a digital single- Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long” is the only big airplay hit from recent times that never made its way to the U.S. digital realm. Though it did in non-U.S. territories, which I found odd- Kid Rock had no problem selling his album track-by-track in other territories, but did in the USA?
Very interesting!