Well it's evidently still popular if people are willing to buy TEN versions of it, no? Maybe not as widely known but that and popularity are two different things IMO.

This issue has been going on for years - But frankly it does little to help the artist or overall sales in the long run. Wet Wet Wet reached the Top 10 by releasing 15 download versions of a single, it spent 1 week in the Top 75 and is not remembered.

 

You got that right - I don't even remember them doing that, let alone the song itself! :lol:

I know this isn't really important to the debate at all but Oasis only released one version of their CD singles as far as I can recall. They did tend to release on every format though, CD - 7" - 12" - cassingle... I mention it solely because they were actually one of the few acts around the mid 90s to not release multiple versions of a CD single.

 

Aw, I was gonna say that. In fact, Oasis even continued to release fourth formats after the format limits were cut to 3, so whatever they were selling on 12" was "wasted" chart-wise. They did quietly start releasing DVD singles in the early 2000s with tracks not on the CD or vinyl versions, though.

 

Anyway, multi-formats are older than that - it was of course 32 years ago last week that the Stranglers were complaining about being beaten to the top by The Jam's 12" sales, and then Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the other ZTT bands started releasing masses of formats. I suppose that's where the four format limit came from.

Apparently "Heroes" by David Bowie was released with the same disc in several different sleeves, not that it was much of a hit anyway.

 

I recall the early 1990's, when, (for example), Take That would release as many as 4 versions of

each Single. Each one was either a different mix, or had a different B-Side & cover. With the 4th

version being on Cassette. It was clearly done to get obsessive Fans buying more than one copy

of each Single.

 

As a contrast, with earlier huge Acts, (Beatles, Rolling Stones, ABBA, Queen, Bee Gees), you

had a choice of one 7" Single, & 1 B-Side. If your Fans did not like your Single, you had a smaller

Hit than usual. There were no gimmicks to get multiple Sales from the same Fans.....

Edited February 16, 201411 yr by zeus555

not that im complaining, but The Saturdays randomley released two CD singles and a 7" for All Fired Up - alongside the digital releases! They only ever did it for that one single too which is strange

One problem that limiting would cause is that downloads often come off different albums. They are often duplicated because they are very easy to get a licence for. There could be ten different albums all with the same track on. These days some oldies have bounced back in the chart due to some advert on TV or a special event. Some download sites don't have all the albums available for purchase, so one of these sites will be only be able to sell the special event download from one album. That might apply to several sites each with a different album. Customers will also pick and choose which version to download. So one of these special event downloads could have ten versions combined together for the chart. It's unlikely that anybody would download any twice or more. So to limit them to 3 versions would be very unfair. With the CD, the record company had to specify which CD counted towards the chart. That would be a big mistake to introduce now too!

I'm am more concerned about iTunes having too much control over the chart, especially the constant flooding of it with 59p tracks that are not generally new material. It would be much better if that company had more new records sold at 59p than something by Blackstreet or Kanye West from the start of this Century priced cheap again!

 

This first(?) became an issue in the 90's when groups like Oasis started releasing multiple CD's to try & articifially hype their chart positions - it was tackled then by the OCC disallowing more than 3 versions from contributing to a song's chart position.

 

Releasing multiple formats to get a higher chart position actually predates Oasis by some way. The Jam were pioneers of it back in the late 70s and early 80s, with multiple vinyls, and on one occasion prevented The Stranglers Golden Brown from topping the chart purely due to their multi format sales, although The Stranglers had sold more of their main 7" version than The Jam had of theirs. Cliff Richard also had his xmas number one, Saviour's Day, unexpectedly dethroned early during the 1990/1 new year, due to a heavily multi-format campaign by Iron Maiden.

I'm am more concerned about iTunes having too much control over the chart, especially the constant flooding of it with 59p tracks that are not generally new material. It would be much better if that company had more new records sold at 59p than something by Blackstreet or Kanye West from the start of this Century priced cheap again!

 

IMO it would a be a good idea for songs not to be able to be reduced more than, say, once a year. That might also necessitate a greater variety of songs being reduced...

I remember Wollies used to do the new release CDs at £0.99 £1.99 or £2.99 instead of the usual £3.99 after release week, and think that iTunes should do new releases at 59p/79p - it would help new entries chart higher