I was in the huge HMV in Oxford Street a few days ago, and was surprised to find that they still had a (very small) stack of CD singles buried at the back of the store. I remember a few years ago it was a huge shelf of virtually the entire top 40, but this got removed sometime between August and September 2009, and since then it's got smaller and smaller.

 

So for those interested, this is the full list of the CD singles you can buy at HMV today:

 

Arianna - Songbird :huh:

The Collective - Teardrop

Coldplay - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall

Cover Drive - Twilight

Caro Emerald - Stuck

Robin Gibb & The Soldiers - I Gotta Get A Message To You :huh:

JLS - Do You Feel What I Feel

Little Mix - Cannonball

George Michael - December Song

Military Wives & Gareth Malone - Wherever You Are

One Direction - Gotta Be You

Project Underdog - Indescent :huh:

Tinchy Stryder - You're Not Alone :blink: (yep, from 2009)

Helping Haiti - Everybody Hurts :D

 

Amount of those currently in the top 100 - one. :P Just Cover Drive!! It's a bit of a sad list...some of them never entered the top 100 at all, I'd never heard of Arianna or Project Underdog in my life. The prices as well were a bit insane...Tinchy Stryder's three year old song would cost you £3.49, and Helping Haiti £4.99, unsurprisingly there were tons of them both and it looks like they hadn't sold a single copy. I remember Jedward's 'Under Pressure' was available for at least a year as well.

 

Do you think they should still bother or get rid of them entirely? It's sad to see CD singles go, but if this is what it's become then it seems silly to keep them. Saying that, will these last few releases become collectors items in a few years time as there can't be many people owning them?

Edited March 3, 201213 yr by BillyH

£4.99 for a cd single?

 

No wonder cd single sales died. Rewind back to 1997 at the peak of the cd single sales boom and a 6 track cd single from Woolworths would cost you £1.99, or maybe £2.49 but never any more. It was only around 1999 prices of cd singles increased when, ironically, the amount of music on a cd single decreased.

 

Value for money? Erm...no. Not at all. :lol:

 

I'm much happier these days purchasing tracks on iTunes, especially when they're on offer at 59p. What a contrast to £4.99 for what I assume would be a two track cd single.

My HMV only has One Thing by 1D right now.

 

It is sad that they're going now. It's nice that some artists are still releasing them - The Saturdays, 1D, JLS, etc.

My HMV sells some singles too, Military Wives is the only one I remember though!

I think its sort of sad. I really hope albums don't suffer the same fate.

Albums will eventually go the same way I think. Downloads are constantly gaining market share and once it gets to the stage where shops start putting less albums on sale a vicious circle will start. Hopefully it will be a long time before that happens though, I've never bought a digital album and don't plan to until it's absolutely necessary!

I was in the huge HMV in Oxford Street a few days ago, and was surprised to find that they still had a (very small) stack of CD singles buried at the back of the store. I remember a few years ago it was a huge shelf of virtually the entire top 40, but this got removed sometime between August and September 2009, and since then it's got smaller and smaller.

There was a time when the singles section in HMV Oxford Street was larger than the whole of my local branch in Bournemouth. You could expect to find the whole back catalogue of an act which had never troubled the charts.

There was a time when the singles section in HMV Oxford Street was larger than the whole of my local branch in Bournemouth. You could expect to find the whole back catalogue of an act which had never troubled the charts.

I would love it if every single came out on CD now! But the demand just isn't there. :( That sounds fabulous!

I would love it if every single came out on CD now! But the demand just isn't there. :( That sounds fabulous!

Back in the 1990s the one good thing about Mondays was my weekly trip to Sister Ray records in Berwick Street (off Oxford Street) to browse through the new releases, singles and albums. Initially that was generally vinyl (preferably 12") for singles and CD for albums. It gradually drifted towards CDs for both in that time.

Albums will eventually go the same way I think. Downloads are constantly gaining market share and once it gets to the stage where shops start putting less albums on sale a vicious circle will start. Hopefully it will be a long time before that happens though, I've never bought a digital album and don't plan to until it's absolutely necessary!

 

I don't think CD albums are going to vanish - they make handy gifts, plus you don't get sleeve notes/lyrics/pictures when you download albums.

I don't think CD albums are going to vanish - they make handy gifts, plus you don't get sleeve notes/lyrics/pictures when you download albums.

This is pretty much what people said about singles 5 years ago... No? Albums are going a bit slower, but 97% certain that they'll suffer the same fate as CD Singles. :(

I don't think CD albums are going to vanish - they make handy gifts, plus you don't get sleeve notes/lyrics/pictures when you download albums.

 

You do if the album comes with a digital booklet, which a lot of them do.

This is pretty much what people said about singles 5 years ago... No? Albums are going a bit slower, but 97% certain that they'll suffer the same fate as CD Singles. :(

No it was always obvious CD singles would die as soon as downloading kicked off. There's pretty much nothing advantageous about them when compared to an mp3, unless you sell them really cheaply, and then everyone involved in the making and selling of it makes a monetary loss on it.

 

I do think physical albums will sell in significant amounts for a good while yet, although I think that give it 5 years or so, that more album downloads will be bought on about 43 weeks of the year. They may vanish from the high street, but they won't vanish completely.

I doubt the CDs are going anywhere soon because surely that would mean the demise for the record companies? Their artists mainly need them for distributing their CDs, everyone can upload a song online.

You do if the album comes with a digital booklet, which a lot of them do.

 

True - but I find printing them out rather counteracts the price-saving of downloading in the first place (*), so I prefer the professionally printed versions that come with purchased CD's.

 

(*) I remember when software used to come with printed manuals, too...

I do think physical albums will sell in significant amounts for a good while yet, although I think that give it 5 years or so, that more album downloads will be bought on about 43 weeks of the year. They may vanish from the high street, but they won't vanish completely.

 

AIUI, on average about 25% of album sales are now downloads, but comparing the download chart to the overall one, it looks like the older/more MOR the artist, the higher their proportion of physical sales will be.

AIUI, on average about 25% of album sales are now downloads, but comparing the download chart to the overall one, it looks like the older/more MOR the artist, the higher their proportion of physical sales will be.

 

Leonard Cohen still went top 3 on the digital albums chart though :lol: