Is there any specific reason why physical single are released so late?

 

i ask this because of the obvious reasons, and also because of this weeks drastically low physical sales number - 98k. ten years ago, 1single selling 98k would of scrapped the top 10, yeh?

 

i heard that some record label were thinking about going back to how it was.. so why hasnt it been done? a good example of an improvement would be of that ''empire'' by kasabian - it was their long running and best selling single!

 

i can understand the fact that most people prefer the cheaper and space saving alternative of downloads, but this doesnt mean sales are usually this low. and also when a track is sent to airplay/tv promo, shouldnt it be available straight away? sometimes it feels like false advertising or something.

Edited January 21, 200718 yr by laundry service

I suppose you've got a point, but I think it's more of a case of downloads being released earlier, not the physical being released later

 

They're sent to radio/tv about a month in advance so they have a better chance of determining how big a song will be, so they don't over-produce and lose money

I reckon what Kasabian did is gradually going to become more commona again, I bet that'll happen :D

 

They're sent to radio/tv about a month in advance so they have a better chance of determining how big a song will be, so they don't over-produce and lose money

 

I think it's stupid that a single is sent for promo 4 to 6 weeks in advance of its release.

People get sick of hearing it that the won't go and buy it. Back in the good days (pre-1995) a single didn't receive promo until a week before release so it would still be fresh.

 

Yup, totally agree. Music is beginning to return to being music again - not just a commodity.

Well an easy case in point is Amarillo from a few years back. It was on TV channels and all over the radio less than two weeks before release. And what happened? It sold near 250k two weeks in a row and went on to sell close to 1.2m.

 

I know it's a charity single etc etc, but it's still an interesting point.

I don't think there's much good music around in the charts right now and thats playing a big part in low sales. Even with downloads included, many of last year's number one singles had very poor sales compared to 5-10 years ago. It's been shown that when a good single is released, it can still sell relatively good amounts. For instance, Madonna's Hung up sold over 400k and stayed around in the charts for quite some time.