CD singles ditched by WH Smith because of sliding sales

23 Feb 04 02:01 by Seán Byrne in category Uncategorized To news archive

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The UK High Street retailer WM Smith has announced that due to stiff competition and declining CD single sales, it has decided to discontinue selling CD singles. This discontinuation will not affect their other sales such as CD albums, DVDs and games.

While CD album sales rose by 5.6% in 2003, CD single sales fell a hefty 31%. There have been
various claims on why singles are becoming less popular which includes file sharing, poor quality music and consumers choosing other means of entertainment such as DVDs and games. Quakester2000 submitted the following news from the BBC via our news submit :

UK High Street retailer WH Smith is to dump the CD single.

The group, which recently announced sliding profits and possible job cuts, said sales have been evaporating for some time.

But it said the move did not mean it was cutting back on other entertainment products such as games and DVDs.

“We are committed to entertainment retailing,” a spokeswoman told BBC News Online, saying that CD album sales were on the up.

WH Smith has found itself facing stiff competition in several of its key markets by price-cutting campaigns at supermarkets.

But it has not been the only retailer to suffer from the decline in single sales.

Across the industry as a whole, British Phonographic Industry (BPI) figures suggest only 36.5 million singles were sold in 2003, a 31% slide.

Album sales, on the other hand, were up 5.6% as prices fell, despite industry complaints about online song-swapping.

It looks like that when online music download stores gain popularity in the UK, online single sales will soon overtake CD singles in a similar way to the US. I would assume album CDs to be still popular due to better value than singles as well as increased competition high street shops in the UK.

Source: BBC Business News

5 Comments

highpass: Posts: 18; Posted on: 23 Feb 04 16:20

Pffft who actually buys CD singles anyway? I thought it was just for kids who can pick up a single with their pocket money. You might as well get the album IMHO

Sir_SiLvA: Posts: 11; Posted on: 23 Feb 04 18:02

@highpass: once singles made a sense! in time of good ol' vynil when there where the famous b-sides - but watcha get nowadays when u buy single - one song in ten versions - and wonder why single sales drop? look @ shit like searching superstars and f**ckin popstars who really should buy this crap? :-)

Seán: Posts: 6944; Posted on: 23 Feb 04 21:39

I quite agree with you. I tried bringing a radio into work to make the atmosphere more enjoyable, but find it really difficult to concentrate when the radio presenter says 'Here is this week's #1' and then 'Shut-up! Shut-up!, Just Shut-up! Shut-up!...". Next song 'Milkshake'... I find it hard concentrating on work with that sort of music (like a TV soap gone musical) let alone getting any sort of temptation to buying that single! The Vinyl days had more enjoyable music that almost anyone would be willing to buy.

stvastva: Posts: 357; Posted on: 24 Feb 04 07:35

DVD-A single time..perhaps one song with video in high definition...5.1 24/96 /24/192 + bonus song equivelant to side b of the 45 rpm? $2...sounds fair to me.

Sir_SiLvA: Posts: 11; Posted on: 27 Feb 04 19:41

sure if its from a musician and not such popstart, superstar and what they call the shit these days..

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CD singles ditched by WH Smith because of sliding sales

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