CD Singles vs Cassette Single Releases - How Did The Record Companies Decide?

Some songs were released on both formats and some were released on either or. Was there some sort of formula for deciding the format?

For example, Don Henley... Every one of the hits off of "The End of the Innocence" got an import CD Single release except for "The Heart of the Matter" (only a promo cd was made).

In the US, I believe they opted only for Cassette Singles for all the the hits.

An older, related thread (which actually contains my very first post)

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...dit-of-don-henleys-heart-of-the-matter.80661/

 

That's a very good question. I used to collect cassette singles myself (still have at least a few hundred of them in storage boxes), and I noticed that CD singles didn't really take off sales-wise until about the mid-90's. I would guess that the companies here in the US saw that cassette singles were the main singles-configuration that people were buying in the late 80's-early 90's and therefore released more of those based on that alone. Plus, they did try the 3"CD single format here in the US in the late 80's, and it never really took off, for whatever reason there was. I don't know about sales of different singles configurations in other countries, though. If the CD configuration sold more in Japan, for example, that would explain why more CD singles were released there more often than here.

 

I am thinking that it's because the format was slow to take off here. I was working at chain record stores in 89-94 and we really didn't sell many CD singles, although we stocked everything that was released. We almost never sold a 3 inch disc when they were still making them. On the flip side, we sold about 20 times as many Cassette Singles.

The UK and Europe (and Japan) seemed to value the CD single format a lot more.

I always thought CD singles were a waste of space and money. Not all, but the majority of the format. I liked the ones that offered multiple remixes or B-Sides. In the late 80's this seemed to be the route they were going in the US (the maxi-single route), but later into the 90's they started to get like cassingles with maybe 1 extra track. Hardly worth the space they took up on the rack, IMHO

I had hundreds of cassingles in their heyday, but sold them all off. I still have one, simply for a piece of nostalgia.

 

In the UK, the Cassingle at first mirrored the a and b of the 7" but then in 1984 it was usually the 12" versions of singles, with some really good ones by ZTT for FGTH. AON and Propaganda. In the early 90s, when 7" singles were being phased out, the Cassingle usually mirrored the 7", whilst the CD was for the extended mixes, extra tracks etc. It was sad in the late 90s when the charts deemed that there should only be a maximum of 3 tracks on a CD single.

 

As I recall, cassette singles were about $1.99. CD singles were usually about $4.99 and some were even higher. Any other questions about why cassette singles sold more / better? Personally, I never liked either. Both were a ripoff in my opinion.

 

I don't think I've ever bought a single on cassette. I have a few of the CD singles because Pearl Jam used to put unreleased stuff on theirs. The Dissident single is particularly good because it has the studio single but also 6 live tracks for approx. 30 minutes of music. Can't argue with that for 5 bucks. I think it just varied from label to label and from artist to artist.

 

I was documenting the death of the cd single in the lat 90's - early 2000's, buying pretty much any single where the artist had any kind of name recognition or was being pushed by the label. I probably have about 500 of them still sealed in the attic. Pearl Jam and Creed were the only rock band that regularly released singles. For awhile the record companies were issuing some singles only in limited markets to try and determine if the cd single was cannibalizing album sales because that was the fear. Weezer - Gone Fishin' and Avril Lavigne - Skater Boi were a couple of those that I had to find on Ebay. I guess I'm going to start listing them on Ebay at some point for ridiculous prices. Look at this guy, "You will not see another." LOL

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEALED-RARE...840?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2edd99c918

 

From what I can tell, the majority of CD singles that were issued (not promos) are pretty worthless at this point in time. May as well hang on to em for another few decades and see what happens

 

I can't answer the question posed by this thread, by in my experience... I first saw a cassette single in 1979 and this was The Police's Message In A Bottle. Even though I was only 9 years old at the time, it is some thing I would have to remember as they were my favourite band then (and I still love 'em) and they were about the biggest thing going, with that being a massive #1 hit. I don't think I've actually owned any more than a couple of cassingles as I'd have seen little point, knowing that they'd get a lot of play with just a couple or so songs being on there and perhaps much more prone to damage than a vinyl 45. On the surface, far less value-for-money with the shrunken artwork!

CD singles, I've never had a massive amount of (though I'd get one if I felt there was reason enough to) and currently have about 20 or so in a plastic tub. These are mostly Supergrass ones and some I bought from a couple of eBay sellers in packs of 3 and 4 - they had some great b-sides that didn't make the albums; often they have a CD1 and a CD2, which makes it fun, hunting down its partner (not! ) And then there are ones by a handful of other artists that I've picked up for 20p or so quite recently, because I just want a particular song that I liked hearing on the radio in the 90s.

I've about 1,000 45rpm singles and that is the tailor-made format for one song per side releases... proof being that sometimes EPs don't sound as good and those 3-track maxi-singles that have 2 songs one one side have to be mastered at a much lower volume than it's other side and then you get the pops and crackles much more evident. Of course, 12" discs at 45 (the standard here, where 33 was the usual in the US) are better again, when it comes to IGD.

 

Yes, that was true at first, but CD singles sales eventually overtook those of cassettes.

 

I only ever bought two cassette singles, as I thought these were cool and so it was a collector thing. Blur's Girls and Boys as it was designed to look like a pack of Durex (condoms) which was genius, and an Elastica one which was like a pack of cards.

By the way, one of my first jobs was being in charge of the cassette section of a record shop, and it was still quite sizable in 1990, and we sold quite a few cassette singles and I used to order in 'back catalogue' cassette singles like the Stone Roses ones, as they sold really well (lots of young people and students who only had a cassette player I guess).

 

Depends on the the rarity of the mixes and b-sides included and how horrible the comp's were remastered that may include them are, I'll take my original Erasure and Depeche Mode singles over the box sets any day (DM Box 4 and above are remastered) But yes depending on the band, quite a few were pretty much a waste of space, Milla's -Gentleman Who Fell has a beautiful acoustic version included , I bought cassette singles for auto use back in the day, seemed like those stock players were more forgiving of them, I don't ever remember having to chuck any of those out the window

 

At one point,US companies had lots of formats available simultaneously:cassingles,maxi-cassingles,CD singles,maxi CD singles,7" vinyl,12" vinyl,both 33 &45. To say that there was a "formula" would be assuming there was some real thought in the process. Remember,this is the record industry in discussion. There was distain for all of them by the manufacturers and they said so in print. By the late '80s,they wanted to sell complete albums. Physical singles were viewed as an aid to selling albums and once it was suspected any of these formats were cannibalizing the goal of album sales,off with its head. It got to the point that there would be a "once and done" pressing of a song on a format purely to boost chart position. Order once with no reorders. In a few cases(Mariah Carey is an obvious example) singles would be sent out to select Soundscan reporting stores at no charge,to be placed at checkouts at a lowball price( usually 99 cents) purely to boost chart position.
Frustration was the climate of the day. Manufacturers hated selling singles. The public hated being told that either there was no single,or it was only available in a certain format or its was no longer available at all. Stores hated it all but stayed in the game because singles held a pretty decent markup(sometimes better than a full album),they were returnable and paid the rent more than once for many a mom & pop outlet.

 

I've never understood why this didn't become an issue for the record companies until the late 80's. Weren't they worried in the previous decades that single sales might be "cannibalizing"album sales? I mean, what was so special about the late 80's-early 90's that all of a sudden they decided to release limited quantities of a single (or in some cases, none at all)?

 

Id say cassette singles were more popular for a while was because cars didn't have CD players as standard equipment yet but most did have a cassette player in them.

 

That could have been a factor. Walkmans could have had something to do with it as well. I think Discmans didn't really become popular until the mid to late 90's.