Whilst the approaching death of vinyl accelerates, yet another music medium has just taken a mortal blow.

The CD single.

Yes, those little silver, shiney discs which had all the storage potential as a CD Album, but somehow only clocked in at a mere 40% of the cost of an album, are now NO LONGER...at least, not in WH Smith stores across the UK.

The high street stationairy, book and entertainment giants have advised that whilst CD Album sales rose by 5.6% as prices fell (by more than 5.6%), the poor old CD-single sales fell by a massive 31%, compared to the previous year. A mere 36.5 million CD singles were sold across the UK last year.

Related press releases also predict the total disappearence of the CD-Single, in just 3 years.

And if one high street music outlet feels this way about CD-singles....

I've been a fan of LEGAL MP3 download sites (from well known, trusted names) for over a year now. They still suffer a certain delay in getting new tunes made available, for example: Boogie Pimps: Somebody to love, Kylie: Red Blooded Woman, and Ferry Corsten: Rock your body rock, have only appeared on-line for download 2/3 weeks ago. With Pop idols Sam & Mark's "With a little help from my friends" nowhere to be seen (yet)....just have to bluff it by keep playing the Wet, Wet, Wet version at the wrong key/pitch then...

However, I can only see this time lag dimminishing as demand grows, and CD-single availability falls.

Several of the most upfront sites all stem from the same "virtual warehouse"/servers, a company called OD2. Here's a link to their site, where, on the right is a list of several front-end sites to which you can join, and pay around 80p for a 100% legal, high quality, download of a track, which is YOURS to burn to CD. You can alternatively stream the track to your PC for a fraction of that cost, but with no right to burn it to CD. Just flash your screendump of the membership screen to any copyright enforcers that drop in on you at your village hall... as they eye up your CDR's and leave empty-handed

In contrast to any time lag, Woolworths offer a "download this album before its even in the shops" service on selected albums. You pay full CD price for it there and then, but they do send you the real CD album on the day of release..a few days later the CD album files on your harddrive expire..neat.

There seems little doubt, that the days of ambling off down town, finding somewhere to park, pay'n'displaying, queueing with a fist full of discs at £4 each, containing 4 tracks, 3 of which you'll never play, are finally numbered.

Presumably it wont be long before we hear the strapline on the radio chart shows saying "And the number one tune this week, based on airplay and internet downloads is....."

A pound-sign of the times? Viva technology.

however amongst the "independent" record labels, especially with the specialist "soul" music genre there has been a return to that old favourite of the DJ

THE 7" SINGLE

with many tracks being released in this medium only.

Singles are a rip off, and they are getting what they deserve for years of overcharging in my opinion. I am a big fan of the mixmaster cd, but still spent my £ on singles before this, want to convert to MP3 but money does not allow at the moment i cannot see any dissadvantages of the technology

well if the cd single goes, lets hope that compilation albums get bought out a lot quicker than they are already - by the time you buy the new "Now" you have got everything on it worthwhile anyway! This is gonna cost us a lot more money in the long run as we will have to buy the single on the album produced by the artiste.. or we wont be playing the current stuff until the latest NOW or whatever is realeased... Hope woolies/asda dont follow suit!

They cant get rid of cds already! surely not... but im sure thats what they said ab out vinyl back in ye old days lol

as for getting the latest singles i still relie on paying just £10 per month for promos from cdpool... they usually do have most of the good singles and remixes for the forth coming month anyway... hope this service doesnt fade aslo

where do you get cd pool cds for a £10! Up until I stopped subscibing to them, I got them direct from CDPool and paid £15 each!

Remember, this thread relates purely to CD singles, not CD albums.

Sales of CD albums are on the up.

...and they are gonna be on the uppperrrr if cd singles go down!

Blimey.... we were "platinum" status subscribers, and spent £60 a month with them for donkeys years and they wouldnt budge on the price! Who did you talk to at cd pool to get that price? Now do I feel ripped off or what! Think we subscribed to cdpool from day one...... rob is going to be answering a few questions from me I can assure you!

if cd singles do go then that would mean a new medium can be used for chart ratings, wonder what they wil use...

as for CDPOOL reckon someone must be telling porkys, I cant get a reduction in price either..... dvd's still £55 cd £20

CD pool wouldn't budge for me either....

.. Tim and Rob from cdpool are on my "hit list" because I have worked out how much money I have given them over the last eight years! (and thats not including what del has spent with them) - Plllleaaaase tell me it was a typo saying you get cdpool for £10!

BTW... a friend of mine who owns a disco shop and who sells cdpool doesnt get a discount either - he does however, get a small commission on what he sells,,, but nowhere in the region of£5 per disc!