Single (music)

In music, a single is a short (usually ten minutes or less) record, usually featuring one or two tracks as A-side, often accompanied by several "B-sides"—usually remixes or other songs. Most singles have only one A-side and are named after this song, but some may have a double A-side (a famous example being Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane by the Beatles), where two tracks are given equal billing in the title of the single. Rarely, a single will not be identical in name to the featured track—such as the Nine Inch Nails single, Closer to God.

Situations in US and UK

In the United Kingdom before the early 1990s, singles were released to radio and shops on the same day. As radio airplay increased, the single would climb in the chart, reach a peak position, often about a month later, and then slowly drop out of the chart. Since the early 1990s, record companies have released singles to radio months in advance of their commercial release. This saturates the audience in the song, ensuring that it enters the chart with maximum sales. Thus, today's singles debut at their peak position. This trend has led to the common sight of not one single in the UK Top 75 gaining in the chart. Singles also spend less time at #1 and fall down the chart more rapidly, spending less time overall since they never climb to their peak. In addition, while before the 90s, the first single from an album was released several weeks in advance of the album, today singles are typically released one week, or occasionally two weeks, before the album's release. The trend of single sales declining and no singles rising in the chart has been checked by the recent introduction of digital sales in the UK.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - 1990s

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Some other strategies are employed in the release of lead singles from an album. On occasion, lead singles are released months in advance of the album they appear on. Two examples are Oasis' "Some Might Say" and Pulp's "Help the Aged". Less commonly, two separate singles are released at the same time to promote an album. An example is the simultaneous release of the Manic Street Preachers' "Found That Soul" and "So Why So Sad".

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In the United States, since the early 1990s, singles have increasingly not been issued commercially at all. While this precluded them from charting on the Hot 100, Billboard Magazine recognised the trend and in December 1998 modified the rules to allow airplay-only tracks, which they call album cuts, to chart. Since then, airplay-only singles have frequently topped the chart. However, the former rule disqualified such long-term airplay #1 hits as No Doubt's "Don't Speak" from charting on the Hot 100 at all. Recently, Billboard too has accounted for digital sales in its calculation of single chart positions.

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