Steve PMHThe best-selling single of all time is White Christmas by Bing Crosby, so what is a music single? And what is the difference between a single and an ordinary song?
A music single is a release that is published separately from an album, although in some cases, it can also be released as part of an album. It can also be made of several songs. So, if you want to know about music singles, keep on reading.
What is A Music Single?
Music can be released in multiple ways, depending on the record label’s policy or the artist’s desire. In that sense, a music single is released on its own, either separate from an album or associated with it.
Singles are usually released to promote the artist or the album that it represents a part of. Music singles are released for distribution purposes or promotion and have various degrees of success, depending on how popular the song is.
Nevertheless, over the past few years, music singles have become less popular as people depend on digital downloads more. This method allows people to choose the songs that they can listen to, whether they’re singles or released as part of an album.
Although a single usually refers to a single song, it can be made of up to three tracks, according to the policy of iTunes.
Historically, music singles were released on vinyl records, where each record would be double-sided. This means that each side of a record contained a single track or song.
What Are the Different Types of Singles?
There are two different types of music singles that are currently used by artists and record labels.
The first one is a lead single, which is a song released to promote a release. It can be an EP, album, music video, or any other type of release.
This single is used by music media publications like clubs and radio stations, where the music is played repeatedly until people become more familiar with it. After that, the music or song is released as part of an album.
This practice has become less popular in the digital age because people can download and listen to the songs they like, as digital downloads made music more accessible.
The second type of singles is a non-album single. This is a song that has not been released in an album and manages to keep the audience engaged with the artist’s style.
Lots of artists like the Beatles released non-album singles that were only years later included in albums. A clear example of these non-album singles are songs like Hey Jude, which was never part of an album.
What Are Different Kinds of Music Releases?
Music releases belong to one of three categories.
A single is a release that contains from one to three songs, where each of them is shorter than 10 minutes.
An EP or extended play contains between four and six songs, usually lasting 30 minutes or less.
An album is the most extended version of a release. It contains more than six tracks and lasts more than 30 minutes with extended mixes, covers and might even include some of the bonus tracks.
The first music singles were released in the 19th century when phonograph cylinders were used to record audio. Throughout the early 20th century, all music releases were singles because of the limited capacity of the records.
Most music pieces and songs were recorded on the standard 10-inch 78 rpm records. As a result, musicians, artists, songwriters, and record producers managed to tailor their music production to fit this record.
However, a standard single remained to be about 3 minutes long until the 1960s. Classical music was an exception because multiple storage media were compiled together to produce a record that held more music or an album.
Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan marks a turning point in the world of recording singles because it’s longer than 3 minutes.
Dylan and his fans demanded that both sides of the record were played in one take, so the track is 6 minutes long recorded on two sides of a vinyl disc.
How Is a Music Single Released?
An artist usually records several songs for an album release or distributes them to different radio stations to receive airplay.
When these songs are successful, the audience will be tempted to buy the album. This is why the artist or the record label will choose the most successful song to be the single.
A music single can also be used as a promotional item, distributed to music stores that play it often, so people can get familiar with the artist’s style, voice, and creation.
In the past, music singles were produced to market the artist’s music to buyers who didn’t have a large budget. Because of singles, they could enjoy the artist’s music, even if they can’t afford the whole album.
As a result, singles helped increase the record label’s overall sales even when the audience couldn’t afford to pay for the whole album.
However, this has changed due to the increasing popularity of digital downloads. Nowadays, people don’t have to buy albums and can digitally download the tracks or songs that they like.
Artists can also use singles to promote their websites. Nowadays, artists aspire to improve their online presence, and they can do this by making their music more shareable.
As a result, singles became more popular, and people share them across different online platforms, allowing artists to gain more fans who will be ready to pay for the album when it’s released.
Cassette tapes are no longer popular, so most artists and musicians release their singles in a CD format.
Is a Music Single Released Alone?
In most cases, a music single is released on its own, but it can also be released with other songs, known as bonus tracks.
These additional tracks that aren’t included in the original album are usually remixes, instrumental versions, covers, or limited-release songs.
What is a Hit Single?
A music single becomes a hit when it becomes viral that the audience always associates the artist or the band with the song and its genre.
This happens mainly because when the audience likes the song, and radio and TV stations keep on playing the same song over and over again because there’s no album.
A music single also becomes a hit when the artist or band takes too long to release the album after the single. People like the single and buy it in anticipation of the album that takes too long to be released. As a result, the single will rank high in music charts.
Music charts in most countries are made in the Top 40 format. These charts are determined based on how popular the tracks are on the radio and TV shows and are published in magazines and shows.
Which Factors Affect Music Singles?
There are several factors that affect how singles are scored. For example, in the 1960s, a single was considered a hit if it sold more than a specific number of copies.
Over the years, several factors changed how music singles are evaluated. Technological development and the popularity of specific genres have made things different.
For example, artists who work in music genres that are popular among kids and teens are more likely to release music singles because their audience has limited financial capacity. In this case, streaming can be a good measure of how popular a single is.
With the increasing popularity of CDs, music singles began to lose their popularity as record labels started to produce albums on CDs, using the same production and distribution costs.
However, this led to a decrease in sales because the young audience preferred to pay for a single track that they liked. They felt that they didn’t want to pay for the more expensive version when they were only interested in a single song or two.
Due to the decrease in singles releases, digital music sharing became more popular. People used file-sharing software and websites like Napster and LimeWire to share the singles that they’re actually interested in.
Another change that affected the popularity of singles is the development of mobile phone ringtones. This development seriously affected the popularity of pop music because people used pop songs as personalized ringtones for their phones.
To cope with this increasing demand, record labels like Sony released a new type of CD singles, which included three songs by an artist in addition to a ringtone that the user can upload to their mobile phone.
The geographical location where the music is released is another factor that affects the way music is released and distributed. In South Korea, there’s a unique term that isn’t used anywhere else and refers to a special release category called a single album.
In South Korea, a single album refers to a record or release that combines one single or more in a CD. On the other hand, a single refers to a downloadable song on its own.
For example, the K-pop boy band Big Bang released a full-length studio album which was released as a series of four single albums, titled M, A, D, and E.
Together, the single albums made the studio album called MADE. Each one of these single albums contained two singles.
Some of The Best Music Singles of All Times
The history of the best-selling singles is the history of the evolution of music genres themselves. Some songs became singles because they’re associated with a specific event or person.
For example, the rewritten version of Something About the Way You Look Tonight, titled Candle in the Wind, was released in the memory of Princess Diana.
It became the best-selling charity single since the release of the UK and US singles charts, selling more than 33 million copies.
The singles lists are divided into two types, physical singles released on CDs and vinyl and digital singles, which are downloaded tracks.
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie
This is a famous 1977 hit single by the Spanish vocal duo Baccara. The Spanish duo became a massive success in Europe after they were discovered on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, dancing flamenco and singing traditional songs.
In 2020, the song became noticeable for its huge popularity among football fans as it was used by the Scotland national football team following the team’s qualification for the UEFA Euro 2020 championships.
Da Da Da
This German song by the band Trio was released as a single in 1982 and featured in their debut album in 1981. The song became a hit single in Germany and topped the charts in 30 other countries.
The song marks a milestone in the evolution of German music as it’s incredibly repetitive and simple, just like most of the band’s songs which were mostly three-chord songs.
There are three versions of this song, the short version and another one that lasts more than 6 minutes, in addition to the live performance.
My Heart Will Go On
In 1998, Celine Dion’s soundtrack of the blockbuster Titanic became a hit single when it sold more than 18 million copies. The song was included in Dion’s fifth album, Let’s Talk About Love.
My Heart Will Go On topped the charts in several countries, including The United States, The United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Austria, Spain, The Republic of Ireland, Sweden, and Taiwan.
Mundian To Bach Ke
This is a bhangra song that was first released in 1998 and then re-released as a single in 2002, where it achieved commercial success.
The song topped the charts in several countries, and there was an American version featuring Jay-Z, which also charted highly in the US and Australia.
This song became associated with introducing Indian characters on the screen in movies and TV shows like ER.
Shape of You
Ed Sheeran released this song in 2017 as one of his double lead singles from his third studio album.
It soon peaked as the number one single on the charts of 34 countries, and it later became the best performing song of 2017. It remained the number 1 hit on the Canadian chart for 16 consecutive weeks.
This song also became the first song to hit the mark of 2 billion streams on Spotify in 2018 and later became the most-streamed song of the decade in 2019 when it was streamed more than 2.4 billion times.
