Single (music)

[2] The single was defined in the mid-20th century with the 45 (named after its speed in revolutions per minute), a type of 7-inch sized vinyl record containing an A-side and a B-side, i.e. one song on each side.

The origins of the single are in the late 19th century, when music was distributed on phonograph cylinders that held two to four minutes' worth of audio.

The inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.

The breakthrough came in the U.K. with The Animals "The House of The Rising Sun" of 4 minutes 29 seconds (cut down to 2 minutes 59 seconds for the U.S.A. market) in 1964, followed by Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" in 1965: although Columbia Records tried to make the record more "radio-friendly" by cutting the performance into halves and separating them between the two sides of the disc, both Dylan and his fans demanded that the full six-minute take be placed on one side and that radio stations play the song in its entirety.

[9] The next milestone, which cemented pop radio's tolerance for longer songs, was the Beatles Hey Jude; released August 1968 it clocked in at over seven minutes, pushing the limits of the 45 rpm single.

[13] The claim made that 48-0001 by Eddy Arnold was the first 45 is evidently incorrect (even though 48-0000 has not turned up, 50-0000-Crudup, 51-0000-Meisel, and 52-0000 Goodman are out there) since all 45s were released simultaneously with the 45 player in March 1949.

There was plenty of information leaked to the public about the new 45 rpm system through front-page articles in Billboard magazine on December 4, 1948, and again on January 8, 1949.

[14] To compete with Columbia, RCA released albums as boxes of 45 rpm seven-inch singles that could be played continuously like an LP on their record changer.

[15] The lowest recording numbers found (so far) for each genre of RCA 45s are: 47-0146 yellow, 47-2715 black, 48-0001 green, 49-0100 deep red, 50-0000 cerise, 51-0000 light blue.

[citation needed] The lightweight and inexpensive 45 rpm discs introduced by RCA were quickly popular and in the early 1950s all major US labels had begun manufacturing seven-inch singles.

In the 1980s its popularity began to decline as jukeboxes became fewer, consumers tended to prefer to buy albums and formats such as cassettes and CDs was overtaking vinyl 45s.

Despite its major decline, vinyl seven-inch singles has continued to released in the 2000s by indie labels such as Sub Pop and Third Man Records.

US), the default hole size fitted the original RCA 1.5-inch (3.8 cm) hub which, due to a format war, was incompatible with the 0.25-inch (6.4 mm) spindle of a Columbia-system 33 1/3 RPM 12-inch LP player.

[citation needed] Before the 7-inch single was introduced, 78 rpm 10-inch shellac records with around three minutes of music on them were the standard format.

[18] Later, 10-inch vinyl singles have commonly been released as limited edition collectors items, which sometimes includes rare tracks or special artwork.

[22] Single sales in the United Kingdom reached a low in January 2005, as the popularity of the compact disc was overtaken by the then-unofficial medium of the music download.

Gnarls Barkley was the first act to reach No.1 on this chart through downloads alone in April 2006, for their debut single "Crazy", which was released physically the following week.

On 1 January 2007, digital downloads (including unbundled album tracks[23][24]) became eligible from the point of release, without the need for an accompanying physical.

Singles have generally been more important to artists who sell to the youngest purchasers of music (younger teenagers and pre-teens), who tend to have more limited financial resources.

Over the 1990s and the early 2000s, the single generally received less and less attention in the United States as albums, which on compact disc had virtually identical production and distribution costs but could be sold at a higher price, became most retailers' primary method of selling music.

Singles continued to be produced in the UK and Australia and survived the transition from compact disc to digital download.

In its place was the predominance of the album, which alienated customers by the expense of purchasing a longer format for only one or two songs of interest.

In September 2007, Sony BMG announced that it would introduce a new type of CD single, called "ringles", for the 2007 holiday season.