Pink Floyd are famous for rarely releasing singles, particularly during their 1970s peak - a tactic that arguably paid dividends with Dark Side of the Moon
seeing sales estimated as high as 45 million, placing it as the third highest selling album of all-time (The Wall, from which the single 'Another Brick In The Wall' was culled is estimated as selling 30 million copies, Wish You Were Here 20 million, Animals 12 million, and The Division Bell 11 million). It seems that their contract included a very important clause stating that their albums should not be split up without their consent.By the mid-90s record companies were in the habit of deleting singles quickly so as to drive up sales of their counterpart album. I remember when the dreadful 'Search For A Hero' by M-People was picked up for a TV ad, seeing a huge demand for the single to be re-released. All we could do at Our Price was offer customers the 'Bizarre Fruit' album instead - only for the record label to pull that as well, and re-issue it as a more expensive double CD with extra tracks. Other artists that benefitted from this type of marketing tended to be one-hit wonders such as Tasmin Archer ('Sleeping Satellite') and Meredith Brooks ('Bitch').
In a world of MP3s this could never happen (indeed, should you wish to download M-People's monstrosity on its own you can do so here
). In some ways it's odd that EMI fought this case, and would instead be content to force consumers to spend the extra cash. Maybe given their current travails they're simply desperate for quick income.
No comments:
Post a Comment